MAPPING A WAY FORWARD AFTER #ENDSARS:
Why It Happened.
With the #ENDSARS protests and the subsequent looting and destruction of property slowly weans, the question in the minds of some Nigerians is where do we go from here? Let us look at the demands of the organizers of the #ENDSARS protest expanded to include items that they probably did not think about during their initial demand.
Yes, the initial aim of the #ENDSARS campaign was to end Police and military brutality, however, other demands were added to include.
a. Replace the Inspector General of Police.
b. Reverse the increases in fuel and electric prices.
c. Stoppage of the jumbo salaries of our elected officials.
d. Minimum wage for all elected officials.
e. Better funding for education and the health sector.
While most of these additional demands are worthwhile, some of them including the demand for a reversal of the increased fuel and electricity prices and placing all elected officials on minimum wage will not help our cause at all. First, a reversal on the subsidy removal of fuel subsidies to attain reduce prices will increase the cost of governance thereby affecting programs that could be executed with those funds. And placing elected officials on minimum wage will do nothing than increase their penchant for more looting and bribing. Even the #ENDSARS organizers realized that police extortion was somehow predicated on their meagre salaries and their quest to find ways to make ends meet.
Let us not delude ourselves, the #ENDSARS campaign or protest was a revolt against a government that has refused to listen to the cries of its citizens. For the last several years, Nigerians have been crying out to their leaders about their plight. From the Boko Haram menace ravaging the North that has gone unchecked, the incessant kidnapping, armed robbery, bad roads, and no electricity. The total breakdown of security for the average person, hunger, and joblessness for scores of graduates we churn out year after year and the list goes on. Despite all these cries, what do we see; our elected officials living high on their hugs while the jet overseas for medical checkups vacation and stash their children in overseas haven with our wealth while the unfortunate citizen suffer in the squalor we call Nigeria.
The #ENDSARS protest is a revolt to the endless committees set up by our elected officials to deal with some of these matters whenever our cries seem to reach a certain crescendo, with none of the findings ever implemented for our good. It is revolt to the lack of accountability of our elected official regarding what, where and how they have invested public funds. A challenge to some of the irrational decisions that our elected officials have made such as building a rail-line to the Niger republic when they have not attempted to connect local economic hubs. True, we want to connect to Niger Republic to enable us export to that country while we have not been able to effectively connect our local economic hubs to ensure that our citizens have access to the most basic needs. In essence, improving the lots of the Niger Republic is more critical than helping our own citizens live a good life.
The #ENDSARS campaign is a repudiation of the lack of trust within the major tribes that make up the country. This phenomenon almost manifested itself in the once again quit notice delivered to all Igbo in Lagos by a nonentity masquerading as a spokesperson for the Yoruba. Yes, a lot of folks came out against his pronouncement, but you better believe that such sentiments exists within a lot of people. The Igbo people have been served quit notices severally by almost all major tribes in Nigeria. Our youth are telling us, that enough is enough. It is time to come together and build a nation that has room, just like in heaven, for everyone.
Our Current Leaders Still Do Not Get It.
Call it ignorance, call it arrogance or plain bone-headed, our current leaders have no clue what is going on. These individuals live in a burble where they have effectively created their own alternative reality about what is happening in the country they have been elected to govern. To respond to Amnesty International’s report on the #ENDSARS, the presidency said that, “the Amnesty International cannot have more facts about things happening in the country than the president.” If the Amnesty Internationals’ report is wrong, where is the report from the presidency that refutes such report from other quarters? If Amnesty International was able to release a report in such a short time, why is it taking the president so long to gather enough intelligence to tell fellow Nigerians what transpired with the killing, looting and wanton destruction of property?
Despite the above, the president’s spokesperson, followed with his own response that “all of the inquiries will help us establish the truth.” My question is…what truth? The truth that SARS officers were killing and extorting the citizens? Truth that police brutality does in fact exist. Truth that our elected officials are overpaid, that there is wanton corruption across all government parastatals. Truth that for an average police officer to gain a promotion he or she will have to pay approximately 250,000 naira to his superiors? What truth does the president spokesperson want to attain. Inquiry minds should want to know!
Basically, what this points to is the fact that the average elected official has no clue and just do not get it! If at this juncture they are only trying to establish the truth means they have not been paying attention to social media, to the cries of Nigerian citizens, to the plight of our roadways, the lack of electricity. They have no idea that our children, parents, brothers, and sisters are kidnapped every day and, in some cases, killed for no reason whatsoever. My point is that if they have not heard our cries up to now, they will never hear our cries!
The Way Forward for #ENDSARS.
In my last post, I said that there two things stronger than politics. The first is social media, and the second is your vote. Make no mistake, fulfilling the promises of the federal government to our youth will not happen overnight, therefore, we have to be ready to continue to raise our voices until those promises are met. As politically powerful as our current elected officials think they are, we must deploy the powers of social media today and in 2023 to vote our conscience and not our stomachs. We must ensure that no future Nigerian governments or politicians takes us for granted anymore. To achieve this objective we must, and I repeat do the following.
1. Use social media to keep the pressure on our federal government and president Buhari to keep his promises. The pressure should be relentless, consistent, and often.
2. We must use our vote in 2023 to ensure that none of these elected officials, currently in power is reelected in 2023. Like Einstein said, “insanity is doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result.”
As we constructively criticize our elected officials, we must show that we are not insane by acting to change the status quo which has not yielded any progress for the average Nigerian in years.
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