#ENDSARS NOW PART III
SORDID AND MORBID IMAGES:
The images of all the dead and wounded circulating on social media made me sick. Even though while discussing this matter with friends, one of them reminded me not to take everything I see on social media at face value. Nevertheless, it was equally saddening site to watch images of police and military officers shooting at unarmed protesters and felling them in our sites. We all must understand that social media and the fact that the average person has access to cameras and video recording equipment on their phones and our action could be recorded and transmitted live. Take a look at recent revolutions around the world, they were started by images recorded and broadcast live by onlookers something that was not available a few years ago. Regardless of how the Nigeria government may try to spin these images, it will do little to satisfy our frustrated youth who are bombarded by these gruesome images constantly.
THE CITIZENS RIGHT TO PROTEST:
We have to embrace the fact that Nigerians have the right to peaceful protest as enshrined in our constitution, even though our culture and natural characteristics is to the contrary. We also are aware that some fringe groups have hijacked our youths’ noble course and turned it into looting, burning and destruction of property. That should never have happened. We should have known that given the climate in the country, with hunger ravaging the population and millions of youths without jobs, some elements in the country will take advantage of the situation to create mayhem. This happened in the United States with the Black Lives Matter movement. Regardless, our government should be civilized enough to know never to use lethal weapon against its own citizens. I am pretty confident that our government has a good stockpile of tear gas, chemical gas, and rubber bullets. The question is, why did we buy crowd control equipment when we have no intent on using them to manage situations such as is happening now in Nigeria. The ease with which our police and military were shooting directly at protesting youth will indicate that our protectives services have tasted blood and is loving it. Definitely, the looters were wrong and have no reason nor justification to do what they did, however, whereas we could rebuild a building, replace stolen goods, we can never replace a life.
RIGHT OF GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT CITIZENS AND PROPERTY:
As has been indicated by our president and numerous governors, they have the responsibility to maintain law and order. They can not for whatever reason allow the country to degenerate into lawlessness. However, whatever measure they choose apply must be measured with wisdom so as not to exacerbate the situation. Our government failed us in that arena. These protests began because people are fed up with police brutality and extortion, coupled with high unemployment, hunger, crime, occult killing, kidnapping and the list goes on. The populace has been complaining about all these and it seem to have fallen on deaf ears. How do we believe that ratcheting up the police brutality to squelch a protest on police brutality would be helpful? We just justified to the world that the protests of our youth are right. Again, there is no justification of the wanton destruction of property and we all should collectively denounce it while counseling our government to take more appropriate tack when dealing with the protesters.
The President Offered No Solace:
When I heard the president was going to speak to Nigerians, I was excited. I was confident that he will offer hope and some solace to our protesting youth and the nation that he and his cabinet is now willing to chart a better course forward. He missed the mark on that! It is true he mentioned his acceptance of the five-point demand of the protesting youths; however, he never offered any plan or some kind of a timeline to give these young ones some hope for a better future. In addition to acknowledging their grievances, he should have outline some specific actions and activities that are directed toward convincing protesters that he and his cabinet are working to meet their needs, as well as a timeline for when they should expect to see concrete actions. Instead, he combined his plan to address their concerns with more threats which basically affirmed what the peaceful protesters are agitating against. Suffice to say that the president’s speech was too little too late.
What Next, A Call For Calm:
Regardless of what or how we feel about the protests, it is time to call off the dogs. I understand the resolve of our youth and their frustration that nothing is going right in our country, however, we must understand that we as citizens of Nigeria have as much to do with the challenges facing the country today as our corrupt politicians. Every four years, the citizens have one chance to determine and map a way forward for their nations. We have been at this for too long to continue to display ignorance as to why Nigeria is failing. Since our independence, we have been stuck in this endless battle of mistrust, tribal and sectional sentiments. Our political decisions have never been based on what is best for Nigeria, but what tribe will maintain dominance over the rest of the country. It does not matter that even the elite, with all their wealth have an incredibly low quality of life due to the conditions in the country. What matters is that my tribe or section will maintain power at all cost hence the phrase…”do or die.” Also, we have in our naivete, opted to sell our souls to the highest bidder whereby for a mere 1,500 naira, an average Nigerian will sell their vote to anyone willing to pay for it. This has to stop! Those 20 cups of rice will be gone in two weeks; however, the price is staying hungry for the next four years until another politician will get the chance to buy your next vote for another 1,500 naira. What fools we have become!
A Wake-Up Call:
The 2020 protests should serve as a wake-up call for all of us and our government. Whether these activities translate to positive actionable behavior is up to all of us. Since 1960, we have been hearing the same promises from the same political elite to no avail, the question is that if we all have collectively learned any lessons from the action of these young men and women. Their protests and rebellion may signal the fact that maybe Nigeria and Nigerians are ready for change but only time will tell. Nevertheless, 2023 offers an opportunity for us to prove our mettle, to show the watching world that we have learned some things from our children regarding our life to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness without unnecessary harassment, assault and extortion. For what it is worth, we all should resolve as a way to support and immortalize the lives of those who died agitating to preserve our right to move freely in our country without fear, by doing the following.
1. Resolve to vote our conscience and not tribe.
2. Reject the temptation to sell our votes and thereby our souls for peanuts.
3. Candidly evaluate the value of these crop of individuals we gave our mandate.
4. Carefully select who will represent and protect our rights if given our votes.
Although I will not be holding my breath for a positive change, I am nonetheless praying that God will show us the way to begin to make a difference in our country.
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