You have to be sufficiently Nigerian to understand what #endSARS is really all about.
You have to be young enough to be active on Facebook, Instagram, tic tok and Twitter for you have truly felt the impact of SARS on your human rights and right to peaceful enjoyment.
You have to understand Nigerian society, Nigerian economics and the deep generational divide that shape the thinking of the citizenry for you to appreciate what happened around the country in October 2020.
First off, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to all who lost life, limb or property in the events surrounding the protests, the shootings and the lootings that eventually took place. I hope that we will be able to pick up the pieces and build the type of nation that we truly want soonest.
How to Survive in an Opportunity Vacuum
One of the most difficult things to do is to
A. be a Nigerian
B. have a high quality of life and
C. NOT have any “connections”. (connections is naija lingo for having friends in high places or what the west terms as politically exposed persons).
This implies that most highly successful Nigerians have or have had friends high up in the government structure at some point. Do your research and verify. However, since the advent of democracy in 1999, there’s been a slight shift as the presence of oil companies, banking and financial services, telecom and FMCG(fast moving consumer goods) and more recently technology companies, has birthed a Nigerian psuedo middle class who can work and take care of themselves and their families without necessarily being too “connected”. The problem is that the opportunities in this arena appear at a rate far less than the rate of population growth.
Consider for example, Nigerias population was 45.2 million in 1960 but estimated at 198 million now. In contrast, the UK reported 52.2 million in 1960 and is some 66.7 million presently.
These are the factors that contribute to the opportunity vacuum.
Opportunity Vacuum : a phenomenon where a society doesn’t generate sufficient opportunities (jobs, businesses, legitimate investments, etc) to satisfy the growth of the population.
We can discuss the causes of the opportunity vacuum later, but let’s talk about the effects of the opportunity vacuum here.
- Mass emigration
- Brain drain
- Unemployment/Underemployment
- Frustration
- Runs
Runs ke?
Runs is Nigerian lingo for acts that people engage in to make money as the economic frustration has murdered or severely assaulted their sence of morality and heightened thier propensity for crime and risk taking.
For girls this manifests as different variations of prostitution (oloso, ashawo, runs girls, club girls, hook up, sugar babies, side chic, I-just-wanna-relax-and-be-taken-care-of babes)
For guys, it manifests as different variations of yahoo yahoo( pressing computer, 419, advance fee fraud, wire fraud, dating scams, business email compromise, hacking, cashapp cash out, benefit boys and the likes)
Shall we sit here and die?
Many of the runs guys and runs gehs are actually university aged or university graduates with degrees from institutions of higher learning who argue that if there were any decent jobs, they would rather work. They feel that their parents waited on the promises of the government for decades, but only succeeded in falling further and further behind the poverty lines as the years went by and they have taken a silent oath not to be subjected to the same misfortunes. We die here.
Wtf is SARS
SARS is a division of the Nigerian Police (Special Anti Robbery Squad) created in the 90s to, as the name suggests, tackle the high rate of armed Robbery and violent crimes around the country. In this regard, they were reasonably effective at the onset. They were given special training, special privileges, and could go a step further than the normal police in interrogation and in detention.
However, that economic frustration from the opportunity vacuum affects everybody including the police and SARS officials. The difference is that they have guns, represent law enforcement and have special priveleges on interrogation and detention.
They were so effective that the rate of robbery actually reduced and they eventually diverted thier time into lower risk, higher reward operations…like picking up Yahoo Boys.
Unlike thier work on armed Robbery, picking up yahoo Boys was not necessarily intelligence or incident based but rather based on dragnet and profiling.
Statements like
“Look at your hair”
“Where did you get money to buy phone? “
“Where did you get money to buy car?”
became common place.
A SARS team could take to the streets (remember that they are not in uniform and drive unmarked cars), stop a person who fits the broad description of a yahoo boy (a young person with a contemporary hairstyle and a cool phone) detain and interrogate him until he satisfies them that he is not a yahoo boy or until he breaks down and gives them money just to leave him alone. There are reports of asking people to unlock their phones, checking account balances and physically driving them to the atm machine to withdraw money….or option B… follow them to the station knowing that some people are never heard from again once they get to the station.
EndSARS is a euphemism for the frustrations of the young people who are unable to attain a decent quality of life in Nigeria and the cries of those who were forced to seek for greener pastures elsewhere because of the failures in their motherland.
As much as we tout one Nigeria, we all know that it is a very fragmented country along various tribal, regional, religious, and socio economic lines…though the biggest fault line in my opinion is the generational divide.
I would say that there are 3 generations of Nigerians,
- Our parents generation (baby boomers born before independence)
- Our generation (generation X born between 1960-1990)
- The new generation affectionately called the indomie generation (millennials and gen Z born after 1990)
Each are vastly different based on their understanding of the relationship between black and white, colony and colonizer, ease of access to information, role of government, office of the citizen, expectation human rights, and tolerance for delayed gratification.
When we were growing up for instance, the only people who knew what was going on outside of the country were the ones who traveled out in the summer. Even watching movies, I remember how my aunt would bring the VCR tapes from the US. We watched Venom (the 1981 British version) , Scarface, the Hand, Chitty Bang Bang Dreamscape, Sounds of music, etc dozens of times growing up. Yea.. Seetah and Geeta, Omar, Akhbar, Anthony, Dus Numbri to the point where we could recant every scene as there was hardly access to movies, until the advent of the video club in the late 80s and the arrival of cable TV in the early 90s. Even the cable TV had just 20 or fewer channels. Before then we had about 5 TV channels nta7, NTA 2 channel 5(your reachout station), ogbc2… They were all govt stations both on TV and radio until Raypower showed up in the early 90s.
Today kids have hundreds of channels on TV, millions of websites on the internet, social media on the phone and have probably never considered going to a library or reading a printed newspaper…all while staying more informed than me and definitely more informed than grandpa.
Unfortunately, the make up of the leadership structure in Nigeria hasn’t been able reflect these advances in our reasoning, expectations and life pursuits.
Part of the disconnect or generational divide is that the older generation has structured it to where they have been the ones in decision making positions pretty much since independence.
Additionally, most of their confidants and advisors are of their same generation so our polity doesn’t reflect the use of technology, access to information, understanding of the role of government and human rights that represent yearnings of the younger generation.
Also the middle generation is not adequately represented in governance which further exacerbates the generational divide.
The previous expectation was to remain patient (or better yet silent) while ogas-at-the-top assured you that they were working to fix the issues even if the results on the ground contradicted their claims…its your fault because you haven’t been patient enough. So 60 years later, there’s no electricity, decrepit infrastructure, poor health care, high unemployment, mass emigration, poor education and even poorer public education, high illiteracy, poor human rights track record and you are being an unruly monster for even thinking about bringing it up… the Monsters you made .
When the shooting starts, the looting starts or více versa
Honestly, I’m not sure of the relationship between gunshots from law enforcement and the peoples desire for OPP (other people’s property) but the connection appears evident, especially in 2020 all the way from Trump’s America to Buhari’s Nigeria.
Until about the 18th of October 2020, what the #endSARS protesters were doing seemed to be the most remarkable feat Nigerian kids have pulled off in generations. They saw an injustice (the video of the man being shot and his car being taken away gunmen alleged to be SARS officers) and organically they began demanding justice and reform. It started with tweets and activity on social media, then engagement between young people and the police spokespeople and ultimately people taking to the streets demanding change.
Within days at the protests sites, they mounted stages, speakers, mobile toilets, solar charging stations where you could charge your phone, free food, food vendors, drinks, prayers and prayer grounds for both Christians and Muslims, bouncers and security, celebrity speakers, performances and guest appearances, helpline for legal, medical, mental health and other types of assistance. I remember someone saying that for a while, they couldn’t find any street beggars in their area but later found out that they were getting succour at the protest grounds.
There was an overwhelming emphasis on the protests being peaceful all along and it seemed like a small glimpse of the utopia that Nigeria could be whenever she either wakes up or grows up.
Suddenly, about Sunday the 18th of October, videos and reports started surfacing nationwide of protesters being attacked, infiltrated and disorganized by paid thugs. There are allegations that the thugs were paid and coordinated by the government and the security apparatus, though these reports are unconfirmed.
On Monday the 19th, there were more reports of violence, and by Tuesday morning there had been violent clashes between the police and people on the streets in response to alleged shootings by police in at least 2 suburbs of the Lagos mainland where the police stations were eventually overrun and set on fire and some officers met the most violent and inexcusable deaths at the hands of the angry mobs. Shortly before noon on the 20th, the governor of Lagos state responded with the imposition of a state wide curfew to take effect by 4pm, though at the time it was unclear how the curfew would be enforced as police presence had dwindled to the point of non existence in some areas as the protests continued.
Unknown Soldier
” Civil disobedience, also called passive resistance, the refusal to obey the demands or commands of a government or occupying power, without resorting to violence or active measures of opposition; its usual purpose is to force concessions from the government or occupying power. Civil disobedience has been a major tactic and philosophy of nationalist movements in Africa and India, in the American civil rights movement, and of labour, anti-war, and other social movements in many countries.”
The #endSARS protest was in its entirety an act of civil disobedience as some major roadways were blocked and used as protest grounds. Chief among these was the lekki toll plaza which generates about $100,000 a day for the state government and was ground 0 for the protests that were taking place around the country. It came therefore as no surprise when 4pm came about and the young people were, as they had been every day for 10 days prior, congregated at the toll plaza as an act of civil disobedience and in defiance of the governor’s directive.
Waving flags and singing songs, reciting the national anthem and doing Instagram live feeds as usual. Many began to question what was going on when the staff of LCC(lekki concession company – the company that manages the toll booths) came to the scene taking down cameras in the middle of the day. It seemed suspicious but not particularly alarming at the time.
The alarming part was some minutes before 7pm when uniformed men in camouflage approached the toll booth and without warning or provocation opened fire.
Armed with only thier Nigerian flags and hopes of a better Nation, they continued singing the national anthem but minutes of sustained bullets flying and mounting casualties of wounded comrades later dispersed the valiant protesters whose agitation for respect of human rights was ironically met with Tiananmen square style disregard for human life.
Neither the state government, federal government nor the Nigerian military have taken responsibility for the shootings.
When the looting starts, the shooting starts… Or více versa
Rattled, scared, scarred, disrespected, disregarded and a host of other emotions that you would feel after being attacked by the those who swore to protect you, there was a drastic turning point in the struggle as the hitherto peaceful protesters who had no weapons to fight, began to unleash their frustrations and anger on the banks and businesses that made Admiralty road one of the busiest and most beautiful streets in Lekki and Lagos in general.
It started with vandalizations on Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning, when the reports of the #LekkiMassacre had made rounds on social media, the peaceful protests sadly devolved into more vandalism and looting of supermarkets, shops and businesses.
The biggest danger of a mob is that no matter how bright the actors are individually, the lowest,
most abase thoughts and desires win the moment claiming innocent lives and property, causing irreparable harm.
My own palliatives nko
In 2020, the year of corona and other wonders, while various voices were calling for calm and restraint amidst the unrest, a mob in one Lagos community stumbled across a warehouse that to the poor Nigerian masses, represents everything that is awry with leadership in the nation.
Bags and bags of food supplies, boxes and gallons of rice, noodles, sugar, garri, oil, commonly referred to as “Covid19 palliatives” from CACOVID that were meant to ease the burden of the corona lockdown on the masses, were found stored in huge warehouses filled to the brim. The first was found in Lagos, then reports came from Oyo state, Jos, Osun, Kwara, Abuja, Anambra and others that they had all stumbled across the same supplies meant for the masses.
Needless to say that the citizens were not happy and government was very embarrassed. They claimed that the challenge was with the logistics of distribution but those challenges were quickly overcome as mobs of people showed up at the warehouses to pick up the supplies personally. Reports are trickling in of more warehouses being discovered and emptied even today.
Sooooo…What next?
Really who knows, but there are challenges and opportunities ahead for the people and the government as well.
A statement has been made by the youth though it is unclear whether the voices have truly been heard. The 5 for 5 is a reasonable list of requirements for those concerned about police excesses and human rights abuses even though they are merely symptoms of the sickness – the growing opportunity vacuum.
The challenge is to identify the causes of the opportunity vacuum and the overcome them with thought and effort, in peace and unity.
- End the violence
There should be restraint from all Nigerians, the masses, security operatives and particularly the military in the use of force and the vandalisation of property as Nigeria as a whole is the biggest loser in this regard when things go awry.
- 5 for 5
These demands should be reviewed and met as soon as reasonably possible with timelines and milestones to reflect and track progress to show commitment to change and reform.
- Youth engagement
Similar to how organizations keep metrics of gender equality the Nigerian government and officials should consider having metrics and quotas for tracking the number of youth in leadership positions and dump the trend of referring to people in their 50s and late 40s as youths for the sake of expediency, but rather do the hardwork of incorporating the younger generation into the leadership structure.
- Accountability and efficiency
A premium must be placed on accountability and efficiency. This is the true way to fight or end corruption rather than retroactive attempts to uncover who’s hand was in the cookie jar at what time. This approach is result based and allows for the leaders to be held accountable and for inefficiencies to be identified and expelled from the system promptly over time.
- Electricity.
The lack of electricity is the chief among ALL of Nigeria’s problems as it stifles productivity, industry, investment, security and most importantly job creation. The purchasing of generators, inverters and others cushion the effects of poor power supply, but collectively have a low productivity ceiling and poor economy of scale. Foreign investors are quickly scared off by the thought of inadequate power supply.
Our New Nigeria
Right now is the biggest opportunity for me and you, young and old, the government and the governed…to ask ourselves what type of nation that we truly want and work together tirelessly to make the Dream a reality in our life time, in honor of our heroes passed and for the sake of our future generations. It may not be easy but it is very necessary and inevitable as the alternative could have dire consequences. The sight of armed soldiers directing traffic in Lekki reminds us of deep wounds of our recent past. The charred remains of buses and businesses warn us of an unfriendly future if we are unwilling to make the necessary adjustments.
Arise o compatriots as we come together to (Re)build our New Nigeria now.
✊🏾🇳🇬🏆
One love and Jah bless.