The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was created in 1992 as a unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department. Majorly, the unit has the core mandate to investigate, detain and prosecute all activities involving armed robbery, kidnapping, car snatching, cattle rustling and other high-level violence. While it had been successful in its earliest days with major successes in operating as undercover agents as well as it track down of Chukwudi Onuamadike also known as Evans in 2017, the unit later became bedeviled with human right violations-sexual harassment, illegal arrest and detention, brutalizing young people, illegal stop and search, and extra judicial killings, among others.The first attempt against the activities of SARS started with the Amnesty International Report in 2016, where it investigated and reported some illegal detention and extortion of young Nigerians by the unit. In the same year, human right Activists led by Mr. Segun Awosanya lend their voices against the activities of SARS and the need for reforms in the Police Force. In 2017, there was a well-defined twitter campaign against SARS with the hashtag-#ENDSARS. This was accompanied with a petition to the Nigerian National Assembly, signed by over 10,000 Nigerian Youths. The main demand of the petition was for SARS to be disbanded by the Federal Government. The campaign seems to go off the scene when some Senators opted for reforms rather than total disbandment. However, the campaign and petition of 2017 only rested to later build strong momentum across all part of the country for protests. On October 8th 2020, the campaign turned into a full-fledged protests with the same hashtag-#ENDSARS. The protests cut across almost all the cities of the federation as well as some foreign cities such as London and New York. Specifically, the protests began when the youth could no longer hold back on their displeasure at the trending brutal and murder videos by SARS official on young Nigerians in early October the same year. The protests were majorly coordinated by the youths on the streets, human right Activists and Celebrities with 5 basic demands namely:
i). Immediate release of all arrested protesters.
ii). Compensation for those who had been brutalized.
iii). Formation of an independent body to investigate and prosecute cases of police excesses.
iv). There should be retraining and psychological evaluation of SARS officials before deployment.
v). Increase in salary of the Nigeria Police Force officials.

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) responded with the disbandment of the unit, but the protesters believed it was one of the previous efforts in futility. Thus, they continued with the protests until it got to its peak on October 20th, 2020 when the protesters defiled the government curfew and protested in Lagos. The Nigeria Armed Forces and the Nigeria Police Force intervened at the Centre of the protest in Lekki Tollgate to scare the protesters away, but it ended in loss of lives and properties with the twitter harsh tag #LekkiTollGateMassacre. This event brought down the credibility of the government.

Lesson for Effective Governance, Active Citizenship and Nation Building

Effectiveness of the governing structure, the right to protest, active citizens, and nation-building are some of the issues the ENDSARS protests left us to resolve. First, there is the need to better understand the role and right of citizens. The right to protest is a fundamental human right in any democracy. Care must be taken to avoid the excesses of the protesters, not with firearms but other mild tools.

The excesses of the NPF being questioned by the protesters make it clear to us that there is need for improvement in the operations of our institutions to meet global best practices. Specifically, the Nigeria Police Force training and operation is obsolete. The men of the force should be train to confront the challenges and demands of the present day. For instance, one of the complaints of the youth during the protests is illegal stop and search. This is dated form of identifying criminals which will may result in harassment of innocent citizens. For our democracy to continue to thrive, the government must reform the governing institutions, in this case the Nigeria Police Force. The role of dynamic and sound policing structure in the quest for a better society cannot be undermined.

The Nigeria justice system has also lost its values. Citizens’ complaints are treated unfairly. The justice system should serve as a check and balance institution for the Executive arm of government. In the present case, where the justice system is subject to the Executive, then, the whole system fails. What we will see in such instance is active citizens’ participation and sometimes aggressive checks on the activities of the erring arms of government.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics Q3 2020 report, youth unemployment is higher than older workers. Age group 15-34 has an unemployment rate of 72%. Nigeria has one of the largest youth cohorts in the world with over 35% of the country’s population falling within the age group 15-34. With unemployment highest among this demography, the risk of social vices, depression and apathy are especially high. For active participation of the citizens, Nigeria must seek for ways to effectively harness the potentials and strength of its growing youthful population. The ENDSARS protests should open us up as a nation to the danger of not creating jobs to engage the teeming youths. The hatred already building up in the minds of these unemployed youths can be provoked by elements seeking to destroy the nation as evidence in the ENDSARS protests. Nations are an important part of modern society. As an integral part of the modern world, therefore, Nigerians are rightly concerned about nation-building. Nation do not happen by mere historical accident, rather, they are built by men and women with vision and resolve. Nation-building is therefore, the product of conscious state-craft, not happenstance. Nigeria’s efforts at nation-building started since independence to address issues that have predated 1960. Hence, Nigerian nation-building endeavor is hampered by her historical antecedence, poor leadership, corruption, and contentious constitutional provisions. The proper functioning of dependable institutions and apatriotic demonstration of political will as seen during the ENDSARS protests will address the challenges of nation-building in Nigeria.

In conclusion, the ENDSARS protests goes beyond protesting police brutality and excesses:it reveals the vulnerability of the country and the weak institutions, which had gotten worse overtime. Major take home for the government remains that: the policing system is vital for
peace and stability of the nation and there is an urgent need to reform the Police Force; the growing population of the youths are strong and wilful; they need to be engaged and well informed to take up leadership position and contribute positively in their society; and the right to protest cannot be taken away from the citizens.

By; MAKROP DANGOK.

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The #ENDSARS Protests: Lessons on Effective Governance, Active Citizens Participation and Nation-Building