#EndSARS: Power of organising as against agonising
Written by Oladimeji Daniels
It started off as EndSARS protest, taking off as though it would end in stillbirth. But then it snowballed into a movement that many of the oppressed Nigerians would believe and join in either on the streets in the rain and the scorching sun or on social media.
It became a global movement, with its first demand being the call to end SARS, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the Nigeria Police.
As soon as the announcement of the scrapping of the police unit by the police hierarchy and President Muhammadu Buhari, the protests took another dimension. The shouts of #EndSWAT became the new singsong and the demands keep growing by the day.
The protesters sleep on the streets, eat on the streets and even arrange to watch foreign football league matches on the streets. It appears neither rain and sun could stop them, nor would sponsored pro-SARS attacks.
It is also evidently clear that vain promises or threats from political office holders would not stop them. And yet this is the Big Brother Naija-viewing generation, the phone-pressing lot who no one hitherto took seriously, but have shown in recent days that they could organise rather than agonise on social media.
They have also displayed tact and strategy by securing the buy-in of the police. Initially, it was #EndSARS, but they have succeeded in making the police a part of the struggle, even if indirectly, by including increase in salaries of policemen as part of their demands.
There have been claims that yahoo-yahoo guys, who in other climes would have been referred to as cyber criminals, are funding some of the protests. While that may be true, no one should think for a moment that the protesting crowds are oblivious of this. It is also true that there are different kinds of people in every struggle. Those who are in it for the wrong reasons will always fall by the wayside and history has a way of shaming them.
The Nigerian political class, which has a way of theorising and mocking every youth struggle, especially in their closet by always saying they have seen and survived the worst, must put on their thinking cap at this time.
The obvious truth is that if these protests die down, the young people of Nigeria have realised their power and the power of organising as against agonizing. After these protests, they would start another and another, and another and as we have seen in recent days, it would catch on internationally.
Those who mouth progressivism, claiming they have done well for the masses, while in their hearts they are fully aware they have done nothing, really must know that the time has come for an end, not just to SARS, but to bad leadership and exclusion of young people from government and governance.
They must know that an end has come to empowering only youth who can bootlick and not those who would stare them in the eyes, without fear, and demand for what rightfully is theirs.
It is a new dawn and the sooner we all realize this and do what is right by the young people of Nigeria, the better.
EndSARS or EndSWAT is just a facade for a greater struggle and those in government must realize this quicker by truly putting the masses at the core of their programmes and policies.