The 14th of October 2020 marks the seventh day Nigerians will be out protesting against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The Nigerian government is not used to being opposed for more than 24 hours. Many times, before protests even start, they are called off. In recent history, the only protest that shook the Nigerian government was the Occupy Nigeria protest in January 2012. The protest was against the removal of fuel subsidy by the leadership of Nigeria’s former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Nigerian politicians and elite from the then opposing party, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) alongside the Nigeria Labour Congress and other activists organised the protests. After a while, soldiers were brought to the streets and the protests died. Just like that. The Occupy Nigeria protests served to advance the political interest of the elite.
Eight years is a long time in a country’s lifetime. In those years, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) merged with ACN to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) which was voted into power in 2015. And in those years, a new generation which was in their teens in 2012, grew into their twenties to become the most fierce generation the Nigerian society is yet to come across. In the space of those eight years, the leadership in Nigeria has continually failed on all fronts, from the National Assembly to the Presidency. The government has shown an ineptitude to handling problems of the 21st century.
In 2012, what Nigerians experienced was a possibility of what a revolution could really be. But career activists, after a brief meeting with the presidency, came to a resolution with the government. The #EndSARS protests deliberately avoided having any leader negotiating with the government. This is partly what is a cause of worry to the Nigerian government. How are young Nigerian men and women not falling for the same traps other previous activists have fallen into? But this is not even the main question. How hard is it for the Nigerian government to ban SARS and reform the police?
A few days into the #EndSARS protests, the Nigerian police declared that the rogue unit had been dissolved. There was a brief joy, then a quick realisation that this was a hoax. The same day of the announcement by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, young Nigerians were still brutalised. On the 13th of October, the IGP again announced the formation of a new police unit, the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit. And again, Nigerians, linked the change of National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), didn’t bring about a change of electricity supply. This was SARS in a new shell but the same flesh.
The Nigeria Police Force does not serve Nigerians, its services are sold to “Vagabonds In Power” (VIP). The threat to withdraw the security details of those supporting the #EndSARS campaign tells us about the police system in Nigeria. In every election that takes place across Nigeria, the police has played a major role in determining what level of possible rigging can take place. Reducing a country’s police force and attaching its importance to political activities places more value on the police force with its duties to the elite than its service to the ordinary people. The Nigerian police are for sale, and while many Nigerians know this, the government does not want to change this. It benefits the Nigerian government to have a police system that protects its 469 lawmakers. These 469 lawmakers who have held the country hostage rely on the police as their army to defend their ill-gotten wealth. It was in the presence of a policeman that Ishaku Elisha Abbo, a senator, assaulted a lady and called the Assistant Inspector General of police on the issue.
A win for young Nigerians will mean the dismantling of many myths the older generation has used to oppress them. The Nigerian government understands that once it gives in to the demand of young protesters that will be the beginning of the end to an old generation of leaders ruling the country. These young protesters will further make demands that the Nigerian elite is not yet ready to compromise or give up. This hill the Nigerian government wants to die on is a hill that is represented by privilege and a generational difference between the ordinary people and those in power. Young Nigerians have shown more determination to occupy both online and offline streets. And the more the streets are occupied, the more they understand their power as a people and a generation.
