The ENDSARS Protests: How It Started, Current State and The Way Forward
By Leo Ralph
Two years ago, on the 20th October 2020, Nigeria witnessed a terrible occurrence that left everyone in shock and asking questions.
Peaceful protesters were shot at by Nigerian security forces at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos State while calling for an end to a police unit called Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) over brutality and other related crimes.
SARS
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) a unit of the Nigerian Force, which was formed in 1992 to combat armed robbery and other serious crimes, has been implicated in widespread human rights abuses ranging from extrajudicial killings to torture, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, and extortion over the years. They also became well-known across the country for targeting and unlawfully detaining young Nigerians on the grounds that they were internet fraudsters. These and more led to a call for the disbandment of SARS on social media, with the hashtag #ENDSARS which surfaced in 2017.
EndSARS metamorphosed from being just a social media hashtag into a protest in early October 2020, after a video circulated online showing SARS operatives shooting a boy in Delta state.
The protest saw youths troop out in large numbers to the streets across major cities in the country demanding the disbandment and total overhauling of the Nigerian Police Force.
As more police brutality videos began to surface on social media, more people joined the protest including celebrities which made the Nigerian government announce the immediate disbandment of the police unit.
This, however, did not stop the protests, it rather made it worse. To a great extent, youths are not well represented in politics in Nigeria and thereby feel left out. This contributed a lot to the rage of the protesters during the protests.
The question arises then as to whether the government can effectively regulate the activities of the police and institutionalize transparency between them and the citizens. The government is seen as an unreliable propagandist who cannot be trusted for its word. People no longer trust the government. This is because the government, on different occasions proposed reforms to address police brutality and human rights violation carried out by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) but failed in these attempts.
During the protest, the protesters had 5 demands:
- Immediate release of all protesters.
- Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families.
- Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reports of police misconduct.
- Psychological evaluation and retraining of disbanded SARS officers.
- Increase in police salary for adequate compensation for protecting lives and property of citizens.
Two years later, have these demands been met? Has police brutality seized in the country? Who ordered the shooting at protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate? Has justice been served for those who lost their lives? These are the questions the Nigerian youths are still asking.
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The situation has not changed, peaceful protesters are still being teargassed at the peaceful procession of the EndSars Memorial at the Lekki Toll Gate at today 20, October, 2022.
Way Forward
Governance. Effective governance is the way forward. Governance is the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country’s economic and social resources for development. Basically, the concept of governance encompasses a government’s accountability to its citizen. Effective governance, therefore, describes proper management of resources and policy formulation in a manner that benefits the citizens and fosters development. Bad governance is the direct opposite of effective governance, which describes the state of the Nigerian situation (in relation to Police brutality) as at the time of the protests.
However, to achieve effective governance and citizens protection which is a core role of government, the following factors must be considered:
- Citizens engagement and participation
- Adherence to the “Rule of Law”
- Transparency
- Responsiveness
- Equity and Inclusiveness
- Effectiveness and Efficiency
- Accountability
The #ENDSARS protest was a call, not only for police reform but also for good governance in Nigeria. The government has its role to play to ensure accountability and commitment to transparency. Similarly, citizens should also be actively involved in governance and carried along when new policies are being formulated.
As it is very evident, the ENDSARS protests aggravated and stretched the scarce resources of this nation as it led to an unnecessary loss of lives and properties across the country. These losses could have easily been avoided through dialogue — proper engagement and participation of citizens in governance processes. It also revealed the deep desire of many citizens to contribute to building our great nation, government only needs to engage adequately.
Conclusively, the active participation of citizens in public decision-making will help to achieve the overall interests of the people. Therefore, all hands must be on deck “to build a nation where peace and justice reign”.
References
Adegbami Adeleke, A. B. (2017). Good Governance in Nigeria: A Catalyst to National Peace, Stability and Development. An International Multi-Disciplinary Journal, 11, 144–155. Retrieved March 2020
Biswas, A. (2020, October 2). Good Governance: Definitions, characteristics and importance. Retrieved March 2021, from www.schoolofpoliticalscience.com/what-is-governance/
David Kaufmann, A. K. (n.d.). Governance Indicators: Where Are We? Where We Should Be Going? Washington DC: World Bank. Retrieved March 2020
Malumfashi, S. (2020, October 22). Nigeria’s SARS: Abrief history of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Retrieved March 2021, from Aljazeera: www.aljazeera.com/amp/features/2020/22/sars-a-brief-history-of-a-rogue-unit
Nwafor. (2020). Five demands from #ENDSARS protesters. Vanguard. doi:www.vanguard,com/author/polycarp/
Uwazurike, A. (2020, November). #EndSARS: The Movement Against Police Brutality In Nigeria. Harvard Human Rights Journal. Retrieved March 2021, from harvardhrj/2020/11/endsars-the-movement-against-police-brutality-in-nigeria/
