I do think we have ever witnessed this level of nationwide carnage before. Some of the madness was spontaneous, some were targeted and focused, most were senseless and some are even laughable, like those who looted tractors in one of the states up-North! Even the destruction wrought by the Biafran war did not equate to what we have just witnessed and are still witnessing. Biafra’s destruction was massive but it was not national; it was a case of the whole against one small part. In fact, some parts of Nigeria did not even know that there was war during that period. What we have now is an uncoordinated war of all against all and a steady descent into ochlocracy (mobocracy). And if urgent and coordinated care is not taken, we will be on our way to Sudan. However, everybody who has been witness to the events of the past 4 weeks knows that it did not start like this and it has not always been like this.
A group of young, educated, passionate, energetic and patriotic Nigerians, most of them professionals, got tired of the prevailing ‘e go better’ and ‘God-dey’ paradigm. They got tired of the criminal highhandedness of the SARS police unit, which abandoned their core mandate of armed robbery and kidnapping to concentrate on phones, laptops and new-age fashion (tattered jeans, jaga-jaga hair et al). In a too-weird-to-believe impunity, they went to the extent of using POS and bank transfers to collect self-determined fines from the youth. That was in addition to killing and maiming at will.
The End-SARS Movement was everything that Nigerians yearned for. They digitally mobilised a huge and intimidating crowd of ‘believers’ They were peaceful, the marshalled their demands clearly and pointedly; they coordinated and administered the movement effectively and efficiently; they fed themselves, cleared the environment, provided infrastructure, including phone-charging points, showed kindness to our unfortunate brethren, and extended goodwill to their traducers (police men in particular). Of course, a critical analysis of their demands shows that SARS was a metaphor in that it covered all that was wrong with Nigeria.
In all this, our dear president did not deem it fit to address the people. Even when the Senate passed a resolution, asking him to address the people, he did not give a damn, because according Ita Enang, one of his numerous SSAs, PMB does not speak much even though he was on top of the situation.
Initially, all was going well. However, some of us who are the authors and finishers of thuggery assets and resources ( just as we have military assets), did not understand how these young boys and girls would just emerge from nowhere and paint them in bad colours and bring the nation( and their opulent lives) to a standstill. They empowered and sponsored their idle political thugs to infiltrate attack and disorganise the End-SARS groups. We saw some of the thugs alighting from and boarding security-like vehicles and hobnobbing with men in black suites.
Initially, the protesters repelled them with the private security operatives and dogs. Then one “unknown civilian” Yunusa Yusuf emerged from nowhere, addressed a world press conference, and threatened the protesters with a 48 hour ultimatum. It was ‘opendential’, and in the presence of our entire Grade A media houses. Yet, nobody asked him ‘who are you; where are you from; who sent you?’ To the best of my knowledge, nobody arrested him and nobody questioned him. And true to his threats, 48 hours later, the Abuja Car market was razed. By that time, people in authority had started threatening the protesters. The army itself announced the onset of operation Crocodile Smile (ever seen a smiling crocodile?), saying it was a routine exercise.
On 20/10/20, it happened. The Lagos State Government, in an attempt to manage the increasingly tense security situation, declared a 24-hour curfew, starting from 4pm. He later extended the operative time to 10pm. However, by 7.20pm, some overzealous unknown soldiers invaded what Olu Philips of Channels had dubbed the Lekki Convocation Ground, shot people who were sitting down, singing Nigerian national anthem and waving National flags. Sadly, in the month of October, as Nigeria was and is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee, our flag was soaked in blood of our youths! Despite all concerted efforts to deny the obvious as supported by pictures, live reports, videos, the Lekki bloodbath appeared to be premeditated.
Some people removed what looked like the CCTV cameras there, the light went off and those who attacked were in army uniforms. Femi Falana has even declared that he has evidence where the soldiers took off from. However, the defence spokesman says all these pictures and videos were photo shopped while the NBC appears to have agreed with him by imposing fines of N3m apiece on Arise, Channels and AIT for relying on ‘fake videos’ for their report of the Lekki-massacre. It might not be a massacre but shots were fired, people were wounded and people died, even by the account of our hardworking but stress-out Governor. The nation gradually went into turmoil.
Police stations, prisons, public buildings, media houses were burnt and looted. Policemen were attacked and some murdered. Initially, it was a southern affair, as the North appeared calm and immune from the madness. The mob was amassing and the security system appeared paralysed and the orderly End-SARS movement has been overtaken by angry, hungry, bitter and bloodthirsty mobs.
In all this, our dear president did not deem it fit to address the people. Even when the Senate passed a resolution, asking him to address the people, he did not give a damn, because according Ita Enang, one of his numerous SSAs, PMB does not speak much even though he was on top of the situation. When Coro started its war against humanity with unimaginable death, tears, sorrow and unapparelled disruption. we were also informed, then by Femi Adesina, that it was not in his style to address people every day, reminding us of his stylistics lecturer who taught him that style was idiosyncratic. Of course, these are all key features of his body language strategy.
Eventually, he addressed us apparently, reluctantly, on 22/10/20. There was no empathy, there were no assurances and outlines for actions, he didn’t calm frayed nerves and he told the youths in coded language: try it again! He did not even mention the Lekki bloody affair, which had caused local and global outrage concern. But he had time to boast of his landmark achievements, including tradermoni and other such integrity-challenged programmes. And as Shehu Sani captured it succinctly, we asked for a speech, we had the speech and we became sad. It was a speech that he should not have made. Our people say that onye ajulu ahu, anahu aju onwe ya (don’t belittle you because others have belittled you. Ignore them and move on with your life). We asked for it by begging him to address us
Our people say that it is easy to give water to the monkey but it is usually very difficult to retrieve the cup from it. The thugs were busy doing their own little things in their own little corners. Some people consciously invited them into a business they were not initially interested in. They moved in, saw that it was sweet and they overwhelmed everybody, including their sponsors. A layer had stated that the hoodlums who burnt that Abuja Car-Mart were mobilised with N1500 apiece to torch the car mart.
An ex-DSS Director informed us that a senators aids conveyed thugs in SUVs to attack EndSARS protestors. So, they gave water to the monkeys but could not retrieve the cup from them. They invited the mobs but could not recall the thugs and that was why the arson, looting and carnage got out of hand. The level of wanton destruction was such that Jesus Wept. Lagos has made a rough estimate of N1trn to rebuild what was lost. That does not include the losses of private individuals and businesses. I also wept.
