#ENDSARS: A TICKING REVOLUTIONARY BOMB
Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq.
It is truly a wonderful time to identify as a Nigerian youth, challenging the accusation that our youths are lazy and unresponsive. I am particularly happy to share and bask in the breaking news that the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) have been effectively disbanded by the Inspector-General of Police. This clearly means the people’s protest was successful.
In retrospect, the nation-wide (and indeed global) protest calling for the total disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, must be truly understood for what it was: people were tired, the people recognize power is theirs, the people want change and they want it now!
A unique feature of that protest is that each protester had either been a victim of SARS brutality or had a relative or knows a friend or acquaintance or have heard verifiable instances of the unprofessional conducts of a majority of the officers of the notorious SARS unit. Again, it must be understood that the people’s claim against SARS was premised not just on claims of unprofessional conduct but that it was a rogue unit that had outlived its purpose, and also whose officers were engaged in criminal actions such as armed robbery, extortion, harassment, torture and murder. There are numerous pictorial and video evidence detailing the brutality of SARS that underscore the resolution that the unit was beyond reformation as the Inspector-General of Police offered, and that it had be be scrapped to give way, perhaps, for a new unit that offers new opportunities for the right value system to be instilled.
But was #ENDSARS simply a movement to put an end to the rogue Special Anti-Robbery Squad? I think not. For far too long, Nigerians have been pushed to the wall by bad fiscal policies, oppressive state regulations and aggressive policing that victimises innocent citizens more than it apprehends criminals in the country. For far too long, pushed to the wall, Nigerians have laid resigned and un-stirred, shunning each and every opportunity to challenge bad leadership. But the gun-powder keg on which our resilience as a people have long sat is set to explode. It is only a matter of time, and a little push more.
Tick Tock. Nigerians have a date with destiny, and it will not be north against south, nor Christians against Muslims, but the oppressed against oppressors, new values against an old and problematic value system. New ethos against ancient methods, climbing on the public’s angst against negligent leadership, riding on its outrage against poor governance to peak on the hill of a revolutionary call for true change. Tick tock. Nigerians have a date with destiny.
And surely the #EndSARS protest will give way to THE REVOLUTIONARY PROTEST, new and bold voices will call out from the remotest parts of Nigeria, old faces will give way to fresh ones illuminated by a hunger for widespread reform and spurred on boldly from the success of the present call for #ENDSARS. It is only a matter of time given that an idea whose time has come cannot be muted. In due course, the shenanigans of the past will be confronted by the present, and this generation of youths once rebuked as a generation of #BigBrotherNigeria would denounce the silence of its older generation and cause the change that Nigeria truly deserves.
Do not be confounded by the extended stubborn posturing of government and the hierarchy of the Police Force against the #ENDSARS protest. They are clever enough to realise that if they give an inch, Nigerians would clearly see the powers in their numbers and unity, and utilizing same, clamour for more institutional changes that will threaten the status quo. It is this, more than any abiding affinity or preference for SARS, that caused our political and police leadership to develop heavy feet in this matter. But now they’ve relented, the people must be given credit for persevering and not the government for giving into the people’s demand.
The opportunity to reform SARS was missed a long time ago. It was named FSARS from SARS against the backdrop of earlier public calls for reform. Besides its nomenclature, nothing else came off it. Three times in the past, government claimed to be reforming SARS but did next to nothing. The people simply can no longer buy into offers to reform a unit that even in the midst of a protest continues to demonstrate clear disregard for the law and due process. Therefore, #ENDSARS was a legitimate outcry, and the people’s will has prevailed.
I have predicted that this victory, when it happens as it has, will give the common man the necessary confidence to employ peaceful but vigorous protest to challenge the government more. #ENDSARS protest will morph into #ReformPoliceNg, and then progress into more institutional reforms cutting across state agencies and departments before coming for the very status quo that feeds the ego of the elite class.
We’re in a defining moment in our lives, and it is important that the people’s triumph in this one instance does not lure us all into a sense of order and perfection. SARS criminal actions represented one symptom of a prevailing malaise within the Nigeria Police Force and it is hoped that sweeping reforms will be undertaken to position the country for better policing riding on the momentum generated by the #ENDSARS peorest
In addendum, let’s be minded directives and orders from the Inspector-General of Police of Nigeria have been disregarded kn times past. Nigerians must be wise to wait on an Executive Order or fiat communicated not by the Office of the President but by Muhammadu Buhari himself affirming the resolution to dissolve SARS and convey his commitment to investigating all errant officers in the now defunct unit for immediate dismissal and prosecution. Giving a sour wine a new bottle does not improve its taste, and as such, the decision to redeploy former SARS personnel to other units in the Force must be resisted until the bad eggs amongst them are identified, sacked and arraigned to answer for their crimes.
Let it be known that the people have asserted their authority in an organic protest that will further galvanise us into more invigorating protests in the future against bad leadership. This is the turning point all revolutions take, and we just crossed the Rubicon on our way to the tour revolution.
God bless our youths.
