THE NORTH AND THE LESSONS OF #ENDSARS PROTEST
October 21
15:29
2020
SARS is an acronym for Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a unit established under Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department of the Nigeria Police in the year 1992 as an emergency response to counter armed robbery, kidnappings and other violent crimes then in Lagos before it was later formed in all State Commands of the Nigeria Police nationwide.
Numerous successes of arrests of armed robbers, kidnappers and other criminal elements in the society had been recorded by the special force in all parts of the country. Despite it’s record of success, the squad had over the years been accused locally and internationally of excesses, harassments and human rights abuses which most of their victims happened to be youth.
A campaign tagged #EndSARS was coincidentally launched from Lagos, Southwest Nigeria where SARS originated and championed by human rights activists, youth advocates, famous artists and celebrities as well as civil society organizations who protested against the unlawful and unprofessional conduct by some of the officers and men of SARS. The protesters pressured the government and demanded for the disbandment of SARS by the Nigeria Police nationwide.
The demand of a week long protest was finally granted through a press conference by the IGP that Nigeria Police had considered the request of the protesters and ends SARS by dissolving it’s structure and quashing it’s operation all over the country.
The announcement by the Nigeria Police to end SARS came after it was visible to the authorities that other parts of the country were beginning to join in the agitation and the protest was gaining momentum in other cities of the world especially in the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and the United States of America (USA).
SARS had passed through a lot of reforms until it was finally abolished on the 11th day of October, 2020.
WHAT THE NORTH MUST LEARN FROM THE #ENDSARS PROTEST
Appreciating the fact that protest is a fundamental right of citizens that must be granted to be exercised against any policy considered anti people or to press the government to take policy action that will protect lives and property and enhance liveliness. The north can learn a lot of lessons from the end SARS protest as thus;
The enormous challenges of the north are enough to motivate similar protest and demand for extensive government response to banditry, kidnapping and terrorism that bedeviled the northern part of the country at alarming level for more than a decade.
Regardless of political differences, ethnic chauvinism and religious jingoism people can still unite and demand for good governance from the authorities. Religion and ethnicity are mostly used by political elites as divide and rule tools for perpetual oppression of our people in the north.
The elites and other privileged class in the north are not perturbed about the plight condition of the downtrodden. They misconceived to be immune against the ills of the region which is illusionary as the effect of bad governance recognizes no social neither economic class boundary in the long run.
The north must learn how to maximize the power of media both social and conventional print and electronic media in making our voices heard. If we don’t speak for ourselves, nobody will speak for us. We must amplify our problems to draw the attention of the government and let the global community aware. The era of dying in pain in over.
The global trend is internationalizing your local problems to get them solved by your local authorities which we must learn. We have seen that effect in EndSARS protest which was held in the UK, US, Canada and other parts of the world before the Nigeria Police was forced to take action.
The culture of promoting political mediocrity against excellence will continue to put us at disadvantage unless we change our understanding of governance beyond primitive considerations.
The self disservice of our people labeling any effort to push the government to take action on problems affecting the region as political and opposition against the government must end. The result of such mentality is what we are experiencing now.
Each society has its peculiar problem bothering it and that problem can only be solved by the people either directly by themselves or through the machineries of government.
If youth could come together and have SARS a legitimate security outfit which is accused of violations abolished, why can’t we come together and press for a decisive action against the outlawed bandits, kidnappers and other terrorist elements in the north to salvage our society?
Sir Jalal
