As the anniversary of the Nigerian youth movement is upon us, echoes of the past are reverberating once again, bringing to the fore the relevance of one of the major components of contemporary Nigeria political reality, the youth population. The government on its part has been quite proactive in ensuring that the anniversary is nipped in the bud, without any meaningful commemoration. The government says it is mindful of hoodlums and miscreant upstaging the protesters on the anniversary, as it turned out during its first outing. So, how should the EndSARS narrative be taken forward?
When the dust settled after the protests which spread across the country as far as Jos and Maiduguri in the north, destruction of lives and property featured prominently. That wasn’t the plan of the originators though, what occurred was that the protests revealed an underbelly of frustration across Nigeria which turned out awry, courtesy of some disgruntled elements and professional criminals made up of street urchins, hoodlums, drug addicts and the damned ugly.
The protest was significant as it was a reaction of the ‘’lazy Nigerian youth’’ to the excesses of rogue law enforcement officers and the failure of governance as they saw it. Before the protest, the youth had mainly maintained a non-so political stance, not because of lack of interest but due to their lack of faith in the country’s political processes/structures and practitioners. They found solace in their ability to weather the daily storms of living through their entrepreneurial instincts of creativity and self-reliance. While doing this, the police which, hasn’t fully taken off its garb of a colonial outfit, found the youth who constantly speak the digital language, obnoxious and disrespectful. There were constant running battles between the two adversaries with the youth at the receiving end. With a political class which never had a comprehensive agenda for the Young Turks and persecutory police, the youth felt they had their lives being snuffed out, in fact some lives were snuffed.
The decision to take a stand which had political undertone gave birth to the #EndSARS movement and the protests which subsequently followed. The realisation that their future was at stake due to what was perceived to be the entrenchment of misgovernance, led them to raising their stakes in their Five for Five demands. Though the EndSARS agitators asked for an end to police brutality, they also recognised that the police as it stood, was a product born out of a fractured conception. They felt the police as an institution needed urgent rescue by seeking for the reform and decent remuneration of the police. The youth wanted to be a friend of the police.
Protests traditionally in Nigeria are usually a few days to a few weeks affair with the usual aluta continua rhetoric, such as comrade this or that. Thus, the establishment tend to overlook them as noise makers who would wear themselves out as time goes by. The original EndSARS contingents were the new breed of protesters to come out Nigeria, well organised, digitally savvy, cosmopolitan, and of course well educated. They understood how the global champions of protesters, such as the French and the British plied their trade, and in fact worked closely with the champs before the course was hijacked and doomed.
Did the protests have an impact? Yes, it did. Initially the government saw the protesters as just a bunch of spoilt brats who thought they knew it all and didn’t appreciate the power of the state. Rather than the government take the initiative of engaging the protesters, it stalled, and allowed the protests gain ground and fester across the country. Government’s reaction to the protest came in form of panic and the urge to supress the protest and protesters.
The EndSARS experience exposed the dichotomy between the younger generation of Nigerians and a government dominated by those who don’t have a grasp of the youth and their needs. Rather than starting to have an honest conversation, which is due, with the youth on the way to move the country forward, for as the Yoruba adage goes, the wisdom of the young and the wisdom of the elders led to the founding of Ile-Ife, with the saying simply implying that a lot of positives comes out of real dialogue. The political elite in Nigeria however decided to treat the youth representatives with scorn and attack. Could the EndSARS advocates be described as perfect? Obviously not, but a long indulged political class only sees the need to view the scene as if nothing is wrong and maintain the statuesque. On the other hand, strangely the government had an entourage of supporters, both online and offline indirectly giving politicians and representatives of the people leeway as regards good governance and rudiment accountability. The authenticity of the EndSARS protesters/agenda is called to questions with all sorts of conspiracy theories thrown up and the whole essence of helping to strengthening democracy in Nigeria is damaged severely.
In the interim, the police is still trying to recover from its loses. Though there have been pronouncements to reform the institution, things still largely remain the same. Governance structures have not changed, with them still gulping so many costs at the expense of the ordinary citizen. Nigerians are currently groaning under the weight of high food prices, and possible scarcities as many farmers are kept off their farms due to banditry and other related crimes. A major blow for young entrepreneurs is their inability to use the Twitter platform to transact their businesses, courtesy of the federal government ban. With youth unemployment at over 50% government’s responsibility is to expand opportunities for rather than stifling them. The youth stay marginalised. As the country moves closer to 2023, political parties are agog with activities such as state conventions, and one major feature which stands out glaringly is the lack of youth participation in the election of party officials, even if the elections primarily are nothing short of shambolic.
While the youth have been further side-lined after the EndSARS imbroglio, its important to consider the sheer number that they constitute. Their needs are varied and challenges many. Their resilience shouldn’t be taken for granted, they have tasted the chestnut and appreciate the value. On the other hand, the EndSARS saga should be an opportunity of further introspection for the youth population on how they can wrestle power from the political class that has little or no agenda for them. From youth advocacy groups like the Yiaga Africa initiative and the Not too Young to Run, these platforms should be the launch pads of political activism from the youth. The major challenge would be how the larger Nigerian society will begin to take the youth seriously as politicians, without them necessarily affiliating themselves with the major or main political movements, deemed as ‘‘tainted’’.
What is the way out that could be beneficial to both mainstream politicians and the youth in Nigeria? Government and politicians would be smart to take the pulse of feelings among the youth and make efforts to address their needs even if it’s on incremental basis. The EndSARS experience whether society comes to grips with it or not, has become the catalyst spawned for Nigeria’s political endgame, because the future is just around the corner and realistically it belongs to her youth.
©Copyright, Olugbenga Adebanjo
Ojuriblog 