#EndSARS Protest: Matters Arising -By Muhammad Sagir Bauchi

Rational Expectation Theory is a theory formulated by John F. Muth. The theory tends to predict future occurrences by looking at the current economic situation. The theory explained that the decision of an individual is base on three primary factors: their human rationality, the information available to them, and their past experiences. It suggests that people’s current expectations of the economy are, themselves, able to influence what the future state of the economy will become.

The theory is often used by economists to predict the anticipated future inflation rate of a country.

Father of Democracy,

Abraham Lincoln asserted that “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”  If the speech of Lincoln could be viewed from the perspective of Rational theory, then we can deduce that his speech is on track, since the theory did not assert that an error may not occur on the prediction!

Nigeria is a country of diverse religions and tribes. And all ethnic groups and the religions are doing their best to protect the interest of their followers. In an effort to do that, they employed various means and strategies to do that. This struggle led to widespread ethnocentric jingoism,  fanaticism, favouritism, and prioritizing “We vs Them”, “Ours vs Theirs”, etc!

Around 2017, an online campaign was launched on Twitter, in which the campaigners were calling for a scrap of a unit under the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) which was established to contain robbery and its related crimes.

Recently, that campaign transformed from an online campaign to a physical protest, where youths gathered in Lagos, Federal Capital Territory, and some states calling for the president to heed their demand. But later, the campaign spread to some parts of the country.

Albeit, The brutal actions of that unit is obvious, owing to the fact that the victims of their actions are not hidden. Therefore, the allegations label against them is accessible through videos and pictures available on the internet.

So, calling for a probe and scrapping of a unit that is well known for extrajudicial killings, heavy-handedness, extortion and unlawful detention of citizens is a wonderful move.

Many citizens following the daily developments of the protest viewed it from different perspectives, some view it as a move by some overzealous youths that were denied access to a dignified life, qualitative education, and job opportunities. While, some view it as a move by some opposition parties/individuals that are at loggerheads with the policies of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, hidden behind the veil of the campaigners to disrupt his effort of steering the country to a new path of self-dependence and provision of much needed critical infrastructures in the country. From another angle, some view it as a move by underworld actors involved in crimes in which that police unit was fighting to checkmate, therefore, scraping that unit would pave the way to keep on with their evil acts without the fear of anything. The last angle is that angle where some view the protest as an underground power tussle by some citizens from a different region with the president in order to topple him and pave way for the installment of ”THEIRS”. In a nutshell, this fourth category is what is referred to as “OURS” versus “THEIRS”.

From whatever perspective one may view the movement, he may have a right or wrong narrative as an evidence to his perspective. For instance, no doubt that youths in Nigeria are denied access to qualitative education by its leadership, this led them to be feed with negative thoughts! Therefore, from a rational theory view, it is not surprising to witness the occurrence of such protest(s).

If we look at the second class, based on our years of experience with the Nigerian politicians, we all know that they can go to any length to satisfy their ego!

The third category is those thinking that those involved in crimes that the SARs are dealing with can go the extra mile to have their illegal way of living free from the eyes of law enforcement.

But there remain questions that need some solid answers regarding the protest and protesters, these are: who are the people calling for a scrap of the unit? What do they want to achieve if the unit is scrapped?

What is the motive behind the call?

To answer these questions, one has to study the body language of the ongoing protest in order to avoid being bias.

Regarding the first question, Southerners are those at the forefront of the campaign. Why? Because they are those that suffered the most from the actions of the unit. But,  why are some politicians and celebrities have an interest in the campaign? One may say, for the politicians, it is in line with their effort to harness political support from their constituents. As for the celebrities, they have a great social influence in that section of the country.

Unfortunately, the protesters have no central leadership. Having no co-ordinated leadership is one thing that can cast doubt on the veracity of the intention of the campaign. Because with central leadership, the government can easily sit down with its leaders and sought out a lasting solution to their yarning with their input. But lack of leadership hinders this golden opportunity.

Also, there are some notable campaigners that are well known with making ill-wish to the country and they aligned are heavily involved in the campaign, I guess it is safe to say that, they are pushing their will contrary to the demand of the actual campaign.

What do they want to achieve?

The sole aim of the campaign is to bring an end to the brutal actions of SARS. Inspector-General of Police, Adam has earlier heeded their demand by scrapping the unit and replaced it with Special Weapons And Tactical Team (SWAT), with a pledge that no SARS member will ever be absorbed into the new unit. Isn’t that a welcome step and a clear path to a new dawn? Why does the campaign switch to things like:

#EndSWAT

#restructurenow

#revolutionnow?

Does that mean those behind the two campaigns (restructuring and revolution) are among the beneficiaries of the #EndSARS campaign?

In the first place, what motivated them to kick start this call?

The brutality of SARS is what motivated them to engage in the campaign. But, why are they calling for what cannot be done overnight? That is a demand for the grand overhaul of the police force and other flimsy/unattainable demands.

Therefore, I may not be wrong to end this piece by saying that the campaign is lopsided and hijacked by some ill motives.