#endSARS: A Second Protest? No, No!
The Community Eye Kicks Against Dec. 7th Planned Nationwide 2nd #endSARS Protest, Recommends Better Alternative
Enaholo J.K.
+2348069055018
When Socrates asserted that “the secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” he must have had a glimpse of the seeming revolts occasioned by #endSARS protests and protesters in Nigeria today.
It is sad that in Nigeria, Government is more reactionary than responsively proactive. Rather than anticipate problems and lay down actionable measures to curb eventualities, subsequent leaders, regimes have sought the cowardly path of taking action when the heat is on. Politics which hitherto now was the tool with which government shared scarce resources for the development of its people and territory has somehow metamorphosed into a tool for antagonism in the hands of unintelligent people who spend their time calling opponents or incumbents ‘stupid’ and when given the opportunity to rule, they spend their time slinging mud, trading blames and wasting funds on image laundry in the face of overwhelming incompetency.
For so long a time the Nigerian Government paid deaf ears to mal-activities of the SARS Unit of Nigerian Police Force and when voices were raised, Government did nothing more than pay lips service to the calls on them to reform the force. Things got worse from being bad and the worst happened. A protest against Police Brutality left all its good intentions and was used as a shield for unscrupulous elements to perpetuate acts of terrorism. Private and Public Businesses were looted and razed to the ground. Corporate Organizations, the Mass Media to mention a few had their fair share from the destructive tendencies of hoodlums who had motives far beyond the thinking of the organizers of the famous #endSARS protests nationwide.
Whilst youths occupied major roads in the country to call on the government of the day to take action against the ills bedeviling Nigerians collectively, yet other youths spent their time constituting more nuisance than the ills being fought against. We are well aware that the jailbreaks in Benin City has heightened insecurity in Edo state with a spike in the spate of kidnappings, arson and armed robbery. Cult clashes have also sprung from the activity with scores lying lifeless resultantly.
Let’s bring this home. In Edo North, a Coalition was formed by youths, NGOs and Civil Societies to join in the nationwide protest in view of throwing more weight behind the movement. A date was fixed for the 12th of October but when Federal Government announced the disbandment of SARS on Sunday the 11th, the coalition felt the need to press the pause button on the planned protest which was scheduled to hold at Jattu Junction in Auchi. On Monday the 12th of October, being the next day, an aggrieved faction of the coalition came out to protest. The procession proceeded towards Jattu Junction and put up a show at the Divisional Police Headquarters cum Area Coomand’s Gate before dispersing. What followed was a surge of youths from all nooks and crannies of Edo North ascending to Jattu Junction where they held their protest the next Monday 19th. Sadly, what happened there on that day will for a long time echo in the annals of history.
There and then it was laid bare before objective observers that the youths are like apples falling off the tree and yes, the apple does not fall too far from the tree! There was a proliferation of controlled and hard substances, numerous confraternal clashes, unnecessary squabbles within, unabated theft and robbery of stocks from trucks that were stranded on the express, extortion of vehicle drivers who drove through adjourning roads, and many more bile acts. It was a chaos waiting to snowball from bad to worse when news filtered in that a dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed by the Edo state government. Quickly it was announced by a party that saw the danger in holding onto the protest beyond dusk that there is a curfew and that protesters should ensure to leave the protest ground before 3:30pm to reconvene by 8a.m the following day.
Those who thought it was the right thing to do, left as advised. Those who had enmeshed themselves in the vices that held sway remained. The result was an invasion of Soldiers led by Lt. Tanko who unprofessionally opened fire at protesters in a bid to disperse them at about the hour of 3pm. Late Comrade Godwin Junior Iraoya, a 25year old orphan from Otuo lost his life in the process. Comrade Stephen Ohimai from Sabogida-ora sustained a terrible bullet wound in his femur and is currently at Irua Specialist Teaching Hospital where he had his leg amputated and is receiving treatment while many others sustained various degrees of injuries in the process of fleeing the scene.
Since that dastardly ending, the Murderers who chopped down a young chap and caused irreversible damage to the lives of young Nigerians roam free in camouflaged khakis while the Edo state government of H.E. Governor Godwin N. Obaseki is yet to convince its people that justice will be served.
However, this piece is about a planned second protest due for Monday December 7th. In view of this, certain questions beckon for answers.
· What are/were the gains from the 1st protest?
· What were the challenges and have we placed these challenges into consideration or are simply heading out for another unorganized outing?
· Are we truly patriotic or simply acting a script of hypocrisy?
· Are we better than our current crop of leaders, truly?
· Have we ended the innate SARS in us?
· Can we handle a full blown chaos, a failed state of lawlessness?
Let’s honestly ask ourselves these salient questions.
As we gear up with the preparations for another outing in the name of #endSARS, an educated recommendation after having asked myself the questions above, with the obvious NOs as answers, would be to not apply the same measures to solve a problem that could go out of hand. We tried a protest, it did not only turn out to be a tool for hoodlums to work out and achieve their evil plans, it served as an avenue for those in government to kill more of us in the guise of trying to control the situation. What’s better to do at this point is a multifaceted approach at tackling the numerous problems that bedevil us collectively through political participation at the grassroots level across all the 774 local government areas of the 36 states of the federation. We cannot continue to stage a collision with the old whose only method of tackling protests is via the use of brutal force but we can map out a road map and painstaking do the math with actions poised at getting the government on the side of the people in due time. The reform must start from the people. Not from the government. If anything must change for the good of the youths, the youths must first change that which is inside of them for good.
The Nigerian youth must honestly accept the fact that he is not better than those currently killing the country through maladministration. He must accept that he has been on the queue for long awaiting his turn to loot. He must not be ashamed to admit that he is angry because he is not among or related to those eating away our collectively treasury. He must stand before himself facing a mirror and admitting that he has erred within his immediate jurisdiction one way or the other. None of us is clean. In our struggles and in a bid to survive we have in one way or the other cheated the system. As soon as we accept this reality and realize that we’ve collectively brought Nigeria to her current condition, we will then see the danger in allowing things to fester on and wake up to the need for a fix through measures that will not break the country apart but measures that will unite us as we work collectively.
Enough of the preaching! The task is daunting but achievable. A 2nd #endSARS or whatever protest on the part of the youths is uncalled for and truly unnecessary. Let’s lay bare what our problems are. They are numerous but fall under.
· Poor Education System
· Insecurity
· Bad Infrastructure
· Unemployment
Whilst the ‘oga kpatakpata’ of them all is bad governance, it is safe to say that we all are the government at our various levels but we just haven’t realized this point yet.
Studies have shown that not less than 75% of the Nigerians in Nigeria are youths but have we taken advantage of this massive number? Not really. Not in ways that can better our lot. Not yet, but if this 75% becomes active in the political sphere of the Nigerian system with sincerity of purpose a lot can happen like magic within a span of 5 to 10 years. Let’s belong to political parties, form committees on the above problems as listed and assign duties according to capacities and competencies. Across all communities in our local governments, the youths should pen down what best measures can be applied to solve Security Threats cum challenges and engage every youth in the process. Matters bordering gainful engagement of the youths must form the bulk of our agenda. The level of poor infrastructure and how to improve on it collectively must be penned down with an emotional appeal towards actualizing the good thereof. Lastly, Education in all its ramification concerns all of us as the level and quality of a society’s education determines its development or otherwise.
It is safe to call this a ‘project reset9JA’ rather than rush to the streets in the name of a protest to #endSARS. The project at hand is to reset and not to recede the country from its current recession to depression and collapse ultimately! Realize this now and seize fire my comrades!
While you contemplate what your next action should be, here are what the likely consequences of staging a second protest might be for us and Nigeria.
· A faceoff with the military and sister agencies which will definitely lead to fatalities on all parts.
· A second lockdown and imposition of a probable full blown curfew
· A breakdown of law and order in the event that the masses refuse to obey the imposed curfew/lockdown
· A proliferation of illegal arms
· A spike in the spate of security challenges currently bedeviling us
· A stop to the earnings and livelihoods of ordinary Nigerians which will lead to hunger
· Broad daylight stealing, arson and killings as a result of hunger.
· Overwhelming health challenges for the aged and children amongst us
· All these will mean no more schooling for our undergraduates who have been at home due to ASUU strike for about a year now.
· This will also mean termination of school for those that have resumed
The long streak of bad omen is inexhaustible but then, who knows, this projection might just be wrong and the direct opposite of all that is said above might come through, but it is too great a risk to take especially now that the government of the day has announced that they will not tolerate any other acts of protests in the name of #endSARS. It is good to protest against a bad system but wiser to rebuild from the grassroots something new rather than keep fighting the old that has refused to yield.
I leave you with Gunther Schuller’s quote hoping that you make the wiser decision in the matter of choice between inventing the new and fighting the old.
“so this anchoring in some way,
in some important way in the past
without repeating the past,
but on the basis of the past
building something new:
that is what is important.”
God bless Nigeria and Nigerians.
_Enaholo J.K.
…the community’s eye!
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