EndPoliceBrutality: Time for National Reforms

 Nigerian youths finally have decided it's time they took the bull by the horns in giving direction to the future they desire. With the launch of the endsars movement which was focused as an onslaught against long tales of incidences of police brutality, the demand has serenaded to an emphatic demand for good governance, good economic programs and extensive national rebirth.

The #EndSARS protest which commenced on the 7th of October within the major cities of Lagos and Abuja, was specifically meant to send a message to the government that the SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) unit of the Nigeria police have shown to not be only irresponsible but wicked, having totally strayed from their responsibility to protect the people and maintain law and  order and has instead turned to be inhuman, barbaric and monsters against the same people they're meant to protect. They had at such in expressing their bulging anger of many years taken to the streets, having boldly as their immediate desire a 5-point demand whose crux was to totally disband the SARS unit as a prerequisite to ending the impunity meted to especially Nigerian youths.

Buoyed by the strength of the demand, Muhammed Adamu, the country's police chief, immediately announced the dissolution of SARS, the erratic and notorious unit that had sparked the agitation. The dissolution of the dreaded SARS was the first of the demand and perceivably that action should have given an indication that seamlessly too the others would follow. So the protest could be seen as progressing along to be a success, in the light of what constituted the demands of the movement.

For the police, that step of theirs that suggested the success journey of the movement had seemed to be a move that could assuage the anger and quieten the protest, but the protesters made both the government and the police realize that the more they thought they looked, the less they were able to see. It wasn't much after the disbandment of the very inferno that set the angst into motion that the demand became expansive, beyond just the scrapping of SARS and it's affiliated demands that the movement became explosive, and ignited surge of demand from all around the country.

The situation now is that beyond the demand to end SARS and institute police reforms, the protest movement has taken a new dimension, insisting on a total national overhaul that encapsulates sociopolitical and economic reforms with more and more protesters- all of them young- finding reason to come into the streets, daily adding new flavours and twists into the protest. So it became that from the turn of events, the #EndSARS agitation happened to be just a means to an end.

From Abuja to Benin, Lagos to Enugu and Osogbo to Bauchi, the common demand that has continued to win more empathy is the ripeness and necessity to recreate our nation, reconstitute our political mechanism, rejig our security apparatus and institute far-reaching economic and constitutional reforms that meets the dictates of modernism and the yearning of the youths, who are the nation's leaders of today and tomorrow.

Just as the government indicative assurance of getting to meeting the 5-point demands might have suggested, same should be given to the expanded yearnings, which by themselves are genuine, legitimate and well-intentioned. That seriousness which the government had severally reiterated in meeting the earlier demands must now be channelled into the new reinforced and widely spreading demand to be taken in good faith. Nothing short of this commitment would show the government as being insincere and would have greatly justified the insistence of the youthful protesters to continue even with the "earlier given indication" by the government.

As could be seen, clearly the concern of the youths are tilting towards and has precipitated into a a demand to reform our cringing institutions and create a new nation; a nation adequately harnessing the resourcefulness of its people and rich endowment for the purpose of meeting its destined greatness. But frankly, this is not something that Nigerians should have to demand, they're rights that naturally should come to be. The foundational necessities for this have been provided by the subsisting material and human resources.

Hence, just a rebirth of leadership, anchored on redirection of purpose and a sincere commitment to be that true essence of leadership, is all that's needed to reposition this country towards the path of desired greatness. This, sincerely and obviously, is what has been lacking in this nation, which obviously has stalled the progress its journey, and strongly this is what the youths are demanding for. What essentially the youths are saying very loudly through this explosive protest is that they, their future and the beautiful potentials of this country have long been trampled by inept leadership.

The reality on ground as seen from the litany of woes that bestride our Nigerian existence- bad roads, unemployment, stuttering economy disheveled security and disturbing standard of living, are all reflections of the kind of avaricious and ineffective leadership this promising nation has been subjected to. 

Hence, beyond the motive of the current sprawling agitation, let this national awareness reignite the process for far-reaching economic and sociopolitical reforms. May this explosive nationwide protest be a precipice for this all important discourse! Nigeria nay Nigerians have long been suffocated by institutional failures that have been prodded by inept leadership for a very long time. Now is that time to get off and get on. Let this protest fan that necessity to action.

Therefore, I call on the government to listen to this urgent demand vehemently spoken through this raging protest. As against an attempt to deploy negative, weak and futile incitement to censure, attack and dismiss the protesters in whatever guise, the Nigerian leadership must use the opportunity provided by this agitation to take stock of the roles of their actions and/or inactions in the existing decrepit situation and make a sincere turnaround.

Very remarkably, this turnaround must be effectively seen by the practical commitment to firstly setting in motion the outlined demands as codified by the #EndSARS.