One Year Memorial of #Endsars Protest in Nigeria

ICMS, Inc. Reports

By Tom Okure, Ph.D.

October 20, 2021

#EndsarsMemorial: Has the Nigeria Government learnt anything from the youth protest?

Today October 20, 2021 is the anniversary of the “#Endsars, End Police Brutality” and other youth grievances protest in Nigeria which culminated in the shooting by operatives of the Nigerian army of unarmed protesters at the Lagos Lekki tollgate last year.

To commemorate the terrible deadly events of October 20, 2020, many youths around the country have taken to the streets using their cars in Lagos shouting EndSars around the area of Lekki tollgate today. Demonstrations also occurred in Abuja and Enugu etc., with youths carrying placards and yelling Endsars police brutality in Nigeria etc. In Abuja there were many convoys of cars despite the heavy presence of security forces to prevent gatherings. These demonstrations are taking place irrespective of police warnings especially in Lagos state that it would not tolerate any form of protest in the state commemorating the event. A Nigerian rapper, actor and song writer Folarin Falana aka Falz in Lagos accompanied protesters in Lagos today remembering those youths who died last year during protests.

Despite the attempts of the Nigerian authorities to dampen the significance of the  Endsars youth memorial protests of last year, Nigerian youths are determined to memorialize the protests and make this an annual memorial event, because there appears to be a lack of closure in the minds of many Nigerian youth who say they are still struggling emotionally with the terrible killing events from last year. 

Statements allegedly made today by Senior Nigerian policy makers Lai Mohammed who is Minister of Information and Culture does not help ease matters and is not helpful in healing the painful memories from last year. 

The Minister is alleged by demonstrating youths to be insensitive by his statements today which portrayed the events and killings of last year at Lagos Lekki tollgate as false This is despite the widely publicized worldwide news events by international news media like CNN. 

In a statement accredited to Lai Mohammed today, he allegedly tags the event at Lekki Tollgate as a: “Phantom Massacre at Lekki tollgate.” Minister Mohammed accused CNN new coverage of the incident as ‘fake news.’ Last year CNN in its reporting of the sad event had asserted that Nigerian soldiers were responsible for the massacre of youth protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos state on October 20, 2020. The  Minister also accused Amnesty International of spreading fake news regarding the Endsars massacre at Lekki Tollgate.

One may recall, that last year during the protest, the Nigerian government accepted the youth “5 for 5 Demands” to end the #Endsars youth protests which seem then to calm the protesting youth who believed that the government had heard their demands for police reforms. Even so, the evidence after a year of the unrest appears to suggest that nothing substantive has been done by the government to resolve the unsettled issues which led the youth uprising last year. Allegations abound from many sources especially in social media that none of the individuals who perpetuated the torturing and extrajudicial killings of protesting youths have been brought to justice. There are also documented evidence of continuing, unabated police brutality all over the country with no evidence of any real reforms, restructuring or training to improve how the Nigerian police force interacts with the Nigerian population.

One can suppose that Nigeria as a polity, has not learnt any lessons from the youth uprising from last year’s Endsars protests. Moreover, how else can one explain the lack of prosecution of the various police officers and the criminals who were identified as involved and who took advantage of the peaceful protests to loot and destroy property worth billions of Naira. Peaceful protesters who were just exercising their right to peaceful demonstration were victimized, some killed and there has been no meaningful redress by the Nigerian government.

Nigeria seems to have a systematic problem of brushing aside societal problems including ethnic unrest, corruption, poor governance issues effectively. Today the whole country is very tense and at the verge of exploding into civil war due to unresolved problems relating to ethnic tensions, unresolved kidnappings, banditry etc. There is a famous adage and a proven historical fact that is worth calling attention to here and that is: “those who do not learn from mistakes of their historical past are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.” The question posed here is this: has Nigeria as a polity learnt any real lessons from last years Endsars youth uprising? 

This writer hopes that Nigerian policy makers and our law enforcement authorities will learn from their mistakes of the past which are many and that the least that Nigerian youth should hope for on this memorial day anniversary of their Endsars protests is to be allowed to peacefully gather, express their views and mourn the loss of their death compatriots.

____________________________

All rights reserved by Tom Okure, Ph.D. The writer is CEO of Inter-Continental Mgt. Systems, Inc. (or ICMS Inc.). ICMS, Inc., is a multifaceted business and management consulting firm with its head office in Albany, New York.