Young Nigerians Protest to EndSARS
By Moses Aisida
While the SARS virus, COVID-19, has ravaged through the world in 2020 - killing millions, and crippling economies - the people of Nigeria have unfortunately been battling a worse SARS for far longer.
What is S.A.R.S? An acronym for Special Anti Robbery Squad - a unit of the Nigerian Police Force tasked with combatting armed robbery, cultism, and kidnapping – that is the sole operation of SARS or was as at the time it was established in 1992. Over two decades of operation and the unit has gone rogue – adopting the most inhuman methods of torture, maiming, injuring, kidnapping, killing innocent citizens, and engaging in the most dastardly form of human right abuse. As the years go by, the level of impunity and gross misconduct in this dreaded unit has skyrocketed. SARS, created to curb armed robbery, have become the robbers and kidnappers themselves. Nigerian youths (teenagers and young adults) have been the ones mostly on the receiving end as they have become targets for these trigger-happy officers. SARS officers often profile young people, forcibly unlock their smartphones, arrest them unlawfully, and lay charges against them for extortion.
What has the government done? Over the years, the Nigerian government has benefited immensely from the actions of SARS as the unit has been weaponized for political errands, intimidation, or witch-hunting. Therefore, there has been a reluctance to probe, reform, or even stop them. The stance of the government has given this unit more courage to mete out evil and wickedness against young Nigerians. At times when tensions had risen over killings, the government had promised to reform, probe, and even dissolve the unit. These promises have never been actualized and have been seen as a political ‘chess moves’ by the government to ease tension until things return to the status quo.
Tension finally exploded on Tuesday, 6th October, when another case of SARS killing triggered a nationwide protest by the youths calling for the rogue unit to be abolished, supported by a social media hashtag – #EndSARS. Till this moment, the protests have been going on peacefully, with embittered youths displaying placards and marching to strategic government institutions to state their demands. As a show of support to the protesters, a Nigerian feminist organization called Feminist Coalition set up a crowdfunding platform to help supporters with protest items like food, water, placards, drinks, ambulances, private security, and even legal support for wrongfully detained protesters.
There has been a need for more outcry on social media platforms because the local media houses have been reluctant to cover protests and have even gone as far as posting fake headlines siding with the government. Despite the protests, the police have continued to harass citizens and unlawfully arrest peaceful protesters. The government has also employed the services of sponsored thugs to injure protesters and disrupt their gatherings. Since the series of protests began, over ten peaceful protesters have lost their lives to the police and sponsored thugs, yet, this has not deterred the protesters from speaking up with their demands, which is to see an end to SARS and police brutality in Nigeria.
Want to know more about this SARS, their atrocities, and the movement against them? Want to read the personal experiences of the victims of SARS? Check out feministcoalition2020.com, endsars.com, CNN, Aljazeera, or follow the hashtag #EndSARS on Twitter and Instagram. Be informed, lend your voice against human right violation. Speak up!
Photo by Olayinka Tobi (Novographer), a Nigerian photographer