SAMSON BENJAMIN in this report takes a retrospective look at the destruction of lives and property that followed the #ENDSARS protests nationwide, and what both protesters and government should have done to avoid the carnage.
As life gradually returns to normal after weeks of looting, arson, wanton destruction as well as death of both protesters and police officers in the wake of the #EndSARS protests, many Nigerians and businesses are counting their losses.
It was disheartening to watch several video clips on both traditional and social media, showing youth and adults in large numbers brazenly making away with other people’s property. Warehouses were forced open and emptied while some shops were vandalised.
A tale of two protesters
However, speaking with Blueprint Weekend on the arson and wanton destruction of property across the country, a public affairs analyst, Olukotun Ajibade, said the lack of education and poor orientation was largely responsible for the looting and vandalism that trailed the protests.
He said, “Nothing illustrates the constructive and equally destructive capacity of our youth more than the fall-outs of the #EndSARS protests. And education makes the difference between the creatively and positively charged ones and the destructively and the negatively charged ones.
“The educated ones were the highly organised protesters that decided to take their frustrations with the ‘killer’ SARS out to the streets via peaceful protest march to attract the attention and empathy of the authorities; and their destructive counterparts are the illiterate ones that, after twelve days, seized the initiative from the educated ones to vent their spleen on the society, who they are holding responsible for their plight.
“Nothing illustrates the difference between the two groups like the saying that ‘the ‘difference between the doctor in the hospital and the cleaner is education.’ The educated and genuine protesters were so organised to raise their own money, feed protesters, provide health care emergencies to the injured, repair damaged vehicles and hire bodyguards to prevent the ruffians from infiltrating their ranks with the aim of hijacking the protests.
“On the flip side were the violent and illiterate rioters. The agenda of this category was to destroy every good thing on their path as locust worms would do on a farm or be as destructive and disruptive as the pandemic like coronavirus, Ebola and SARS-like virus would harm the human body and destroy life. The dilemma is that both categories of youth are our children and future leaders.”
Similarly, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the vandalism, looting of Covid-19 palliatives and shops by thugs was not caused by poverty in the country, but by the #EndSARS protest.
Adesina said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme that attributing the looting to poverty was like justifying armed robbery, saying the protracted protests provided an atmosphere for looting to take place.
He said: “Criminality is criminality. Would it justify armed robbery because the man was poor? Would it justify armed robbery because the man didn’t have money? Just as you cannot justify armed robbery because a man was poor and took a gun to rob another person, you can’t also justify the looting.
“Criminality will always be criminality and mere anarchy promotes criminality. What has happened in the last two or three weeks led to what has happened now. If there was cohesion and tranquillity in society, this wouldn’t happen.
“Therefore, it was corollary to the mere anarchic situation that came on the country because of the protests. If you didn’t have people burning police stations, killing policemen, burning private and public property, you wouldn’t have this spate of looting.
“So, I don’t agree that it is all about poverty. Yes, in any country, you will have at any given time, you will have people who are poor, who are hungry and that is one of the reasons you have the government is to ensure that the number of poor and hungry people is reduced.”
FG’s blame
However, a rights activist and constitutional lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, blamed the violence on what he called the use of primitive and unlawful means by the federal and some state governments to address protesters against the brutality of operatives of the SARS.
Barrister Effiong told this reporter that rather than addressing issues of poor governance raised by the agitators, the federal government chose to deploy “extra-judicial means to discredit and scuttle the genuine agitations of aggrieved protesters.”
“Recent attacks on police stations in Edo and Lagos states have been cited by governors of these states as a basis for imposing questionable curfews. One can reasonably infer that these attacks are ostensibly sponsored by persons who are sympathetic to the government, as part of an orchestrated plot to unleash the military on protesters to truncate the nationwide movement for police reform and good governance.
“From the start of the nation-wide protests, about two dozen peaceful protesters have been murdered by security officers and murderous thugs actively aided and abetted by law enforcement agencies and state actors in different parts of the country.
“The social media is dominated by videos and photos showing armed thugs and riotous mobs unleashing mayhem, burning and destroying properties belonging to protesters and other Nigerians. These criminal actions are not happening in isolation. Generally, protesters have remained peaceful and law-abiding despite the provocations. Protesters have been working to restore law and sanity as part of their civic responsibility,’’ he said.
He said further: “We have seen protesters offering food and water to police officers. We have seen protesters clearing the streets of dirt. These same protesters have volunteered to control the flow of traffic in Lagos and other parts of the country.
“It is unacceptable that the police have not arrested the thugs and their sponsors who are committing murder, arson and other criminal activities. Rather, we have seen pictorial evidence of thugs being conveyed in police vehicles. This can only mean that the government and the thugs are in sync.’’
EndSARS leadership
Significantly, Festus Okoli, a security expert, told this reporter that the lack of definable leadership for EndSARS protesters made it difficult for them to articulate and present their grievances to the appropriate authority.
“As the country takes stock of the losses of #EndSARS protests, all must learn many lessons. It should be re-stated that the grievances of those who asked that SARS be scrapped, and the Nigerian Police reformed were genuine and germane. Their modus operandi in showing their anger and disgust at the system in the form of peaceful protests was spot-on. But there are other areas where perhaps they did not get it right.
“Firstly, the perceived lack of centralised leadership will always pose a problem. Some reports indicate that some people, mostly social media influencers, were regarded as the informal leaders of the movement. These people reportedly held no formal positions and the implication will always be that they would not have the authority to direct and supervise the protesters, giving room for uncoordinated pronouncements and approaches that brought problems to the movement. When the Lagos state government imposed a curfew on the state after the burning of a police station and killing of some policemen, reports show that some of the leaders of the protest asked the protesters to heed to government’s directive and go home. In contrast, others asked them to continue in the streets. So, it was apparent that there was no leader whose word carried some substantial degree of authority and this was a severe minus to the #EndSARS protest movement.
Likewise, a former vice-presidential candidate, Pastor Tunde Bakare, said the failure to have recognised leaders was an error on the part of #EndSARS protesters. Bakare, who stated this during an interview on Arise News TV on Monday, noted that the lack of leadership undermined the agitation.
Compared to his own Save Nigeria Group demonstrations of 2012 for which he said he had ‘an engine room of leaders and elder statesmen,’ the cleric said protests must end at the negotiation table.
According to him, he advised the influencers of the #EndSARS protests to choose leaders to negotiate properly with the government, because leaderless protests would lead to “a social or class suicide.’’
“They needed to have chosen leaders they trust. There was so much mistrust. You negotiate from the position of strength immediately the government buckled,’’ he said.
Bakare also advised the young generation of protesters not to look at the generations before them as useless, as generations in the past also fought for the nation’s future with civil protests. “We build on the accomplishments of past generations and continue to move on.’’
Inconsistent demands
Furthermore, Okoli said the inconsistent nature of their demands suggested that they have ulterior motives beyond police brutality.
“The protesters’ demands were clear from the beginning. They wanted the government to scrap the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). When the Inspector-General of Police announced that SARS had been scrapped, they demanded that the president must address them. The President obliged, and they presented a five-point demand. The government accepted all their demands, and they remained in the streets.
“Some of them were demanding that the salary of federal legislators be reviewed downwards, some were asking that the IG of Police should resign and others went as far as suggesting that President Muhammadu Buhari should step down.
“At this time, it became unclear what those on the streets were looking for, and this gave the room for hoodlums to take advantage of the situation to perpetrate looting, arson, mayhem and destruction. Understandably, the protesters were wary of the government move to scrap SARS as similar pronouncements in the past have been fruitless, and things remained the same. But the fact of the matter is that genuine reforms of the Nigerian Police cannot happen overnight. It would be difficult to wholly reform the Nigerian Police while the protesters were still on the streets.
“It was challenging to differentiate the peaceful #EndSARS protesters from the hoodlums who were intent on looting, mayhem and destruction. Also, flooding the protests with food and drinks meant that hoodlums would always see the venue of the rally as an arena for free food and drinks with attendant consequences. The organisers failed to come up with a strategy to prevent the infiltration of the peaceful movement by subversive elements, and this proved costly, destructive and deadly.
Buhari’s advice
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday in Abuja appealed to the nation’s youth to end street protests and participate in meaningful discussions with the government aimed at comprehensive reforms to end all forms of police brutality against Nigerians.
The president also said protests cannot last indefinitely and, therefore, called on the youth to dialogue with the government and engage in comprehensive reforms.
The senior special assistant to the president, Garba Shehu, disclosed this after the president, represented by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Bello, spoke at the maiden National Youth Day celebration, observed on November 1.
Garba Shehu wrote on his twitter handle @GarShehu that the president said the government was prepared to listen to concrete and practical ideas from the Nigerian youth and also acknowledged their constitutional right to peaceful protests.
He said, “You must realise that protests cannot last indefinitely. My government will not lift a hand to stop or suppress you. However, the fact of the matter is that other forces and actors will seek to take over your protests that they may redirect them in ways you did not intend and perhaps do not agree with.
“Every successful protest movement the world over has understood that there comes a time when activity must move from the street to the negotiation table. That time for you has come. Do not be afraid of this reality. You should welcome it.”
The president said too many lives have been lost and it is an opportunity to move Nigeria to a much more accountable society.
“It is important that we all strive to use this moment constructively. Too many people have already sacrificed too dearly. It is our duty to use this fateful situation to move ourselves to a more just and caring society. As a youth, you have a nation and a future to build. My government will always be your faithful partner in this essential and patriotic endeavour. No one who is obeying the law, whether they are in line waiting for a taxi or in a peaceful protest line, should be harassed or brutalised by law enforcement agencies,” he said.
