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#EndSARS Nigeria’s Tipping Point? – By Simon Kolawole

The youth uprising against police brutality in Nigeria has taken many by surprise. Conventional wisdom is that the youth are more likely to dance at a concert than sing a protest song. Events of the last couple of weeks have altered this narrative as youthful Nigerians have taken to the streets in a vigorous campaign to shoot down police brutality, with the notoriety of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) serving as the trigger — no pun intended. With the help of the hash tag, #EndSARS, the agitations have gained international attention. And the government has seen that this is not business as usual. Are we finally at the tipping point in the battle for the soul of Nigeria?

While the protests have, in the main, been about police brutality, interpreting them purely as such would be a massive mistake. We would be making a mistake if we focus on the fact that other interests, especially political, have seized the opportunity to fuel the fire. We would be erring by looking only at the disruptions being created all over by protesters who have refused to yield an inch despite their demands being met by the government. We would be missing the point if we focus too much on the fact that even the yahoo boys are eager to see the end of SARS, which itself grooms and harbours a legion of police officers that are yahoo boys and robbers by nature.

For sure, every struggle has its own opportunists. All kinds of characters will jump on the bandwagon to pursue their own agenda. That’s the way life goes. We have to look beyond that. My reading of the real situation is that there is something deeper going on out there. Deeper than SARS. Deeper than SWAT. Deeper than police brutality. What we have in our hands is the unloading of pent-up anger, frustration and resentment by Nigerians — with the youth leading the line. The SARS situation is what Yoruba would describe as “ara ran bombu l’owo” — that is… now I don’t know how to interpret that. Let me just say: “A thunder strike has helped detonate a bomb.”

In 1988, when I was a student of Kwara State Polytechnic where I studied for my A’Levels, we hardly had water at our residential halls. We queued up with our buckets every morning and every evening for water supply by tankers. Then one evening, guys played football. The tankers did not show up. How would they go to bed sweaty and smelly? A few of them started beating their buckets, singing “aluta” songs over water scarcity and poor welfare. Before we knew it, it had progressed to a protest march across the campus. And then a full-blown riot. Overnight, some of us trekked 10 kilometres to Ilorin town, afraid that soldiers would soon invade the campus and start shooting.

You would find it hard thinking a simple football game would lead to a bloody riot in a matter of minutes. In fact, if you were the cynical type, you would argue that the students were unserious, that they were in school to study and not to play football, and that it was the unserious students that caused the riot in order to be sent home. But you would be missing the point. Students were already frustrated. Nobody was paying attention. The anger was building up. The authorities did not see it. The resentment had reached a peak. They ignored it. It took a meaningless football match to fan the flame into an inferno. That is what happens when you fail to read the writing on the wall.

Let’s now return to #EndSARS. For decades, Nigerians have been complaining about police brutality. For decades, the Nigerian state has turned a blind eye, despite panels upon panels set up and recommendations upon recommendations made. As Professor Jibrin Ibrahim, respected political scientist and newspaper columnist, pointed out, all presidents since 1999 have set up one panel or the other on police reform. The reports are gathering dust on Aso Rock shelves. Meanwhile, the police have been gleefully stockpiling dead bodies, cocksure that there would be no consequences. SARS went on robbing and killing with impunity. Is the day of reckoning finally here?

But SARS apart, youth frustration has been building up. We asked them to go to school. They did. Write WASSCE. They did. Write UMTE. They did. Go to university. They did. Do national youth service. They did. Yet years later, they are still begging to apply for vacancies that do not exist, vacancies reserved for the children of the high and mighty. There are those that keep writing entrance exams but are unable to proceed because of lack of space or funds. There are those that never went to school, and those that dropped out in primary or secondary school. Millions are underemployed, unemployed or unemployable. What a huge army of frustrated youth.

But in the same country, if you manage to get elected into a state house of assembly, you will get a brand new SUV, currently sold at N50 million per machine. In some states, there are 40 lawmakers. That is N2 billion. Judges will wake up one day to realise the governor has just bought “tear-rubber” SUVs for them. Governors ride long convoys with the most modern bullet-proof technology. In the same society, hospitals are rejecting patients because “there is no bed space”. People are struggling to pay rising bus fares but their leaders can afford to charter jets to attend weddings and rallies. The youth see all these things. This is a society built on injustice and inequality. And we want peace?

Poverty, unemployment and inequality are the biggest triggers for uprising in any society. Some young persons taking to yahoo, drug dealing and armed robbery are products of a system that does not reckon with the implications of unemployment and poverty. An idle hand, it is said, is tempting the devil. No human being will sit at home and die of hunger. Self-preservation is a basic human instinct. If it is to steal, beg or borrow, the human being will strive to survive. Let me be clear: I am NOT justifying crime. However, a wise society will make a connection between unemployment, poverty and crime, and act decisively to address the problems at the root.

For decades, we have been asking the government to make the economic environment less hostile to businesses, especially small and medium scale enterprises, so that they will be able to create jobs for the millions of skilled and unskilled Nigerians. For decades, we have been putting up with the dissonance — government, on one hand, claiming they are trying to improve the ease of doing business; and government agencies, on the other hand, continuously terrorising SMEs with extortionate levies and taxes in a mad revenue drive, using task forces loaded with thugs and police officers to make the business environment unbearable for the engine room of the economy.

For inexplicable reasons, the government —whether federal, state or local — cannot understand the link between policy and prosperity. They think by making life difficult for businesses and their owners, the economy will grow and create the jobs needed to address the unemployment, poverty and inequality ravaging the nation. Does that make sense? For instance, if you run a business in Abuja, right under the nose of the federal government, the ministries, departments and agencies will violently come after you in such a way that you would think you are a Boko Haram member. Serious countries are encouraging SMEs. We are killing them. And we want to tackle unemployment.

In FCT, at least three units of the Abuja Municipal Council Area (AMAC) do “health inspection” on an eatery every year. You pay a levy for each visit. NAFDAC, NSTIF and SON will also do the same “health inspection” for a fee. There is an annual licence for “operating in FCT”. There is a levy for “using a car to distribute food”. You will be forced to pay Federal Housing Authority (FHA) and AMAC again for “fumigation”. There is also the AMAC “sanitary inspection” fee. AMAC’s department of environment charges for yearly inspection. There is yet another AMAC fee for “food and water-related handling”. That is how we want to encourage economic growth and create jobs in Nigeria!

In all, the #EndSARS protesters need to have an articulated game plan. They must have an end game in mind. At what stage do they sheathe the sword and seize this golden opportunity to begin to hold leaders at all levels accountable as a movement? No government official, whether elected or appointed, should sleep at ease again. What are the lawmakers doing with the constituency projects? Why are the roads so bad? Why are the hospitals and schools in such horrible state? Why are government officials chartering jets to attend political rallies? How are the budgets spent? These questions should shape the next stage of agitation, which should be peaceful and orderly.

If #EndSARS is going to be Nigeria’s tipping point — the point at which pockets of protests and agitations will trigger a major, sustained clamour for good governance — there is a need for strategic articulation, with an end game in mind. This is a lifetime opportunity for the youth to channel their anger, frustration and resentment into positive energy to bring about a fundamental change in Nigeria. The biggest gain should not be just to enforce an end to police brutality and impunity. Those are just symptoms of the chronic mismanagement of Nigeria. After #EndSARS, we need to end the biggest obstacle to our progress: appalling leadership at all tiers of government.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
NOT SARS ALONE
I don’t want to be an alarmist, but SARS is not the most deadly unit of the Nigeria Police Force. In fact, those who are very familiar with NPF operations have told me that SARS can be regarded as a gang of nice guys compared to two others. “When you are talking about impunity and savagery, SARS is still learning the job compared to the special anti-kidnapping squad (SAKS) and the special anti-cultism squad (SACS),” a police source told me. “It was SACS operatives that killed Kolade Johnson at the viewing centre in Lagos in March 2019 but people thought it was SARS.” The source said members of the disbanded SARS could even be reposted to the two deadlier units. Chilling.

LAUREL FOR LAURETTA
One thing Nigerians have had to put up with is the uncouth communication coming from presidential spokespersons. They have been talking down on Nigerians, insulting them at every turn and calling them “wailers”. But they have been uncharacteristically quiet since the #EndSARS protests broke out, although Madam Lauretta Onochie, the Queen of the Pack, tried to run her mouth initially. I find it weird that presidential spokespersons can be this gentle. That must count as a gain from these protests. Now that the eternally savage Onochie has been nominated as an INEC commissioner, she has even become gentler. If I’m in a dream, please don’t wake me up. Surreal.

THE NORTH AND SARS
Different strokes for different folks. While SARS is known in most of southern Nigeria for robbing and killing innocent Nigerians — especially young persons with tattoos, dreadlocks and ATM cards — northern governors said they are a blessing in the region as they have been combating armed robbery. This is interesting. However, in my books, security agencies have murdered thousands of innocent citizens in the north, particularly in Borno state, since the Boko Haram militancy started. There have been rapes and massacres, while fish traders are regularly robbed at gunpoint by security agents. What have the northern governors ever done about this? Hypocrisy.

SARS AND SWAT
Commonsense is not common, as they say. Nigerians have been complaining about SARS for ages, and on different occasions the police authorities always said they would reform the unit. In 2018,they changed the name to F-SARS as proof of reform. I’m not joking! So when Nigerians launched #EndSARS protests, the police authorities said SARS had been disbanded and immediately announced that the setting-up of the special weapons and tactics team (SWAT). Dear God, why are our leaders so clueless? If you are going to set up SWAT at all, this is the most inappropriate time to announce it. Deescalate tension first before anything else. Is it so hard to understand? Incredible.

– Kolawole is a respected journalist and publisher of TheCable

Revolt of the Twitter Generation, the Monsters We Created, By Festus Adedayo

In the last one week or so of the rise of the #EndSARS protest across the country, a damp gleam of hope for Nigerialit me up. I dare say same for many of our compatriots. It is just like the gleaming multicolor of an emerging rainbow. All our previous forecasts of hopelessness for the land started to collapse gradually. Picture of a Nigeria bereft of heroes or heroic deeds started to give way.

As the crowd in Abuja, Lagos, Ibadan, Port-Harcourt and other cities multiplied, with unimaginable resilience of trudging Nigerian youths putting their lives on the line in the face of merciless repressive machineries of the Nigerian state, in a moment, I was in Kenya. You would think reincarnation had flung the revolutionary leader and guerilla hero, Dedan Kimathi who led the armed military struggle against British colonial regime in Kenya called the Mau Mau war, back to Nigeria. Or that his revolutionary collaborators – Musa Mwariama, Waruhiu Itote, and Muthoni Kirima had similarly reincarnated on the streets of Nigeria. Like these Nigerian youths, Kimathi was reputed for his dexterous, enormous organizing capacity and unimaginable skills at manufacturing guns. They constituted the vortex of Kenya’s struggle against British colonial injustice.

Like many of the #EndSARS advocates, Kimathi was a youth. Unlike Kimathi’s Mau Mau, however,the Nigerian protest has no identifiable leaders but is united by a common grief, grouse and scalding hopelessness. More importantly, the Nigerian struggle is devoid of the maniacs associated with the Mau Mau uprising of Kimathi. These are young men and women who have demonstrated to the rest of the world that you could be civil, humane and methodical in dissent.

Born in October, 1920, Kimathi began the struggle at age 33 in 1953. In the Kenya of his time, the most resonating angst was the people’s beef with British settlers’ forceful stripping of Kikuyu lands from them. Gradually, they formed themselves into the Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), which then morphed into the Mau Mau group, a militant Kikuyu, Embu and Meru liberation struggle which became a major threat to British colonial government. They compelled fellow Kikuyu to swear to oath of solidarity, in horrific initiation ceremonies of drinking blood of fellow human beings, eating their brains, semen and flesh of exhumed babies.

Kimathi was accused of horrendous methodology of fighting the struggle. Aside ordering the hacking to death of hundreds who defied the struggle, Kimathi carried a double-barreled shotgun and inflicted the most brutal attacks on members of the Kikuyu tribe, largest ethnic group in Kenya perceived to be loyal to the oppressing colonial government. Within the time of the struggle, Kimathi was reputed to have killed thirty-two settlers and around 100 British soldiers. He was eventually shot in the leg and captured by Ndirangu Mau, an askari soldier on October 21, 1956, sentenced to death by a British-assembled court of an all-black jury of Kenyans and presided over by Chief Justice O’Connor. He was executed by hanging in the early morning of February 18, 1957 at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.

Organizers of this #EndSARS struggle are far different from Kimathi’s crude struggle prototype. Kimathi received epithets like “terrorist, brute and crude,” even posthumously from successive governments of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, but a reconstruction of his place in Kenyan history was subsequently done, both in literature of the struggle and by remembrancers. Ngugi wa Thiongo and Micere Githae Mugo, for instance, memorialized him with the play, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and his 2.1 metre bronze statue labeled Freedom Fighter Dedan Kimathi, sitting on a graphite plinth statue, adorns Central Nairobi today. Kimathi was also recognized by the duo of Nelson Mandela and the government of Mwai Kibaki, about 50 years after his execution. Mandela flew into Kenya to pay visit to his unmarked grave, barely five months after Madiba left his 27 year- incarceration.

Though Kimathi’s Mau Mau and #EndSARS struggles differ in thematic occupations and modus operandi – one was brutal and the other humane – their ultimate goals were targeted at rescuing their peoples. Replace the brutal British colonial policies of forceful acquisition of Kenyan Kikuyu lands with the duo of SARS police brutality and the hopelessness unleashed on the future of Nigeria by successive governments and you will rationalize the need for an uprising against the systems. For Kimathi’s unorthodox method of instilling fear by allegedly ordering the cutting into two of the young son of a Kikuyu chief, drinking his blood, and throwing the two halves of his body at his mother who was eventually killed too, you have the allegation of wild consumption of marijuana by some of the activists. In the latter, however, a 21st-century approach of resilience and mass organization through social media to stamp their insoluble resolve was employed.

Like Kimathi’s colonial Kenya, there is hopelessness for the youth of Nigeria today. Biblical Queen Esther’s crossroads statement – if I perish, I perish – as she made to enter the presence of King Ahasuerus, the all-powerful King of Persia, who ruled from India to Ethiopia, seems to be #EndSARS’ abiding pathway. Spilling their blood as martyrdom doesn’t seem to matter to these youths who gather on Nigerian streets in the last one and half weeks or so. Their typically unNigerian resolve can be likened to the seeming nihilistic words from those biblical starving lepers at the entrance of the City Gate during the famine of Samaria. The lepers, listening to the approach of the Syrian army, had said to themselves, “If we say, we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.”

The disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had made life miserable for Nigerian youths. The most dreaded prototype seems to be the Awkuzu, Awka dungeon said to be Nigeria’s own Auschwitz concentration camp. Auschwitz comprised a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps which were operated during World War 11 and Holocaust by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. In Awkuzu, SARS allegedly indiscriminately exterminated and buried suspects. The first step to show government’s sincerity is to open Awkuzu up for confirmation or disproof of claim that it is a killing and burial field.

To SARS, it didn’t matter whether you had no link with scam and advance fee fraud, all you had to don was bushy, dreadlocked hair heaps like that of Bob Marley and be unlucky enough to afford an I-Phone. Many have been killed without any redemption and many more stood the chance of being killed. #EndSARS’ belief is that it would only take SARS and the Nigerian state to kill a few others during the protests, for normalcy and humanity to sprout in the genes of the Nigeria Police force. For this, the protesting youths’ resolve ranks side by side Esther and Samarian lepers’ suicidal plunges.

The next level of protest, I think, should be #EndHopelessness, in which case #EndSARSshould morph into seeking total redemption for the land, just like the Arab Spring uprising. As I wrote in Why the Colour of #RevolutionNow Was Not Arab Spring-red, this protest has the imprimatur of the huge gathering of Egyptian protesters on February 9, 2011 at the Tahir Square in Cairo. Unruly as they looked, like the #EndSARS, it was obvious that this was a crowd determined to change the status quo. They sought end to oppression, economic adversities and collapse of the Arabian spirit in the Arab world. It spread to the Habib Bourguiba Boulevard in Tunis, Tunisia, a mammoth crowd at the Sana’a in Yemen, calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdullahi Saleh and the hundreds of thousands of people at Baniyas.

It will be calamitous if government, by whatever subterfuge, succeeds in abridging this protest. Though apprehensive, this government does not seem to have learnt any lessons from this peaceful revolt. Already, a redundant, pliant and insouciant government which slept while students pined away at home for seven months now, suddenly became hyper-active in seeking an end to the ASUU strike action. The need for a total stand-up to the runners of the Nigerian government is necessary.

An urgent rescue of Nigeria is today placed by providence in the hands of the youth. The fact that there is no sign of hope in every department of the Nigerian life underscores this urgency. After spending aimless years in school, the youth are flung into a Nigeria that is youth-hostile and holds no hope for their future. There are no jobs anywhere and many of their ilk wander through and get drowned in the Mediterranean in search of hope. Why then would they shy away from  confronting this hopelessness once and for all and like in Animal Farm, get the drunken and unkind Mr. Jones, our own Tsar Nicholas II of the Russian Revolution, to scamper away?

Already, #EndSARSand a few emerging contradictions of Nigeria’s pseudo-federation are beginning to reveal the incongruities of our system. They also point the way to go. As seismic as the protest has been and the positive international buy-in it is receiving, Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, (NGF) and Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja last Thursday, said that SARS, the execrable police unit, has been useful to the North in the fight against insecurity. “SARS is not made up of bad elements alone as it also includes personnel who are doing their work diligently,” he said.

Before this, the Zamfara State governor, Bello Muhammad Matawalle,, was said to have sold N5billion gold unearthed in his state to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) while Niger Delta, which lays the Nigerian crude golden egg, cannot sell its treasure. Osun State’s Itamogun, where gold is mined, still forwards own proceeds to a nebulous federal government. It will seem that, like the cobra’s fetus, renowned in ancient Yoruba incantations as originator of its death, the seeds of the unitarist federalism Nigeria operates are coming out to be its pall bearer.Advertisement

All these will reveal the need for #EndSARS to transform into #EndHopelessness. Let the youth, who according to Burma boy, are “the monsters you made,” bring back hope to this countryand subsequently resolve the Nigerian question. For me, Marley’s highly nihilistic track, Check out the real situation, is the way to go. It succinctly explains our crossroads. “Well, it seems like, total destruction, the only solution…”he sermonized. Like the Samarian lepers, if we stay put here, hunger and hopelessness in the hands of Nigeria will kill us but if we stand up to the system now, we can only be killed by hunger and hopelessness. Let us take our option.

AKEREDOLU, AKURE PEOPLE AND PRIMORDIAL INSTINCT

By way of beginning, this is to congratulate Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State on his phenomenal win of the October 10, 2020 gubernatorial election. While his All Progressives Congress (APC) was victorious in 15 of 18 local governments, People’s Democratic Party (PDP’)s candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, won in the remaining 3 local governments. That political jokester, Agboola Ajayi and his master, former governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) polled a miserable 69,127 votes. What that means is that even if the highly-trumpeted alliance of Jegede and Ajayi had seen the light of the day, it most likely wouldn’t have been able to upstage Akeredolu.

However, Governor Akeredolu jolted poll watchers when he announced his disappointment with the people of Akure, the state capital, who constituted the three local governments – Akure South, Akure North and Ifedore local government – where he lost and which gave Jegede their votes. Jegede hails from Akure. Akeredolu had said in a television interview: “I thought I was going to win the 18 local governments. I’m shocked at what happened in Akure… But I’ll put that behind me. I’ll move forward. I thought I would win in Akure because I worked in those three local governments where people turned against us. But it’s alright with me. We’ll forget it.”Advertisement

In a Nigerian politics where primordial sentiments take overwhelming position over any other consideration, it is shocking that Akeredolu is shocked at the paucity of votes he got from Akure people. The primordial nature of political support is revealed in that, in Owo where he hails from, Akeredolu defeated Jegede with about 30,000 votes while Jegede also led him with about the same amount of votes in Akure.

Akure people were known to fight other people’s battles, even at their own detriment. The kingdom roasted like suya its crème de la crème politicians in the Second Republic – R. A. Agbayewa, Olaiya Fagbamigbe and Babatunde Agunbiade esq, former Majority Leader of the State House of Assembly, and many others. Their crime was that they supported an Ekiti man, Akin Omoboriowo and abandoned an Owo man, Adekunle Ajasin. So, rather than be shocked at the outcome of votes from Akure, Akeredolu should be happy for Akure people because primordiality is manifesting as having its own gains after all.

For the very first time in a very long while, Akure queued behind its own in the said election. For decades, indigenes of Akure city and their kinsmen from the hinterland who constitute the other two local governments, had engaged in ancient bickering. Politicians exploited this dissonance to further set them apart. Akeredolu himself once said that Akure belonged to all. The monarchies in the three local governments strove unsuccessfully to mend this crack. It is worsened by an ancient but objectionable line of a native dialect song renowned with Akure in the city, to wit, “A mo i s’Akure oko o, Akure Oyemekun…” – we are different from Akure villagers; we are true born of Oyemekun.” This divisive song built a wall between the Akure people in the councils.

However, with this election, the three “warring” councils that constitute Akure were able to come together and speak in unison, albeit in support of their son, Jegede. To irredentist Akure people, this is phenomenal and should be consolidated. Methinks its leaders should use the outcome of the election to heal the ancient acrimonies, dump self-serving charlatan political leaders, get a leader acceptable to all Akure people and use their unity to negotiate for the development of Akure kingdom from political authorities.

In Nigeria, a second term has always been the bane of states’ development as re-elected governors literally go to bed and slip into a 4-year inertia. Akeredolu began the first four years well by attracting some industries to the state via synergy with the Chinese which produced the Ondo-Linyi Industrial Hub in Ore and constructing the Ore Interchange bridge. He also made appreciable showings in road infrastructure. He should go down in history as the governor who deviated from the pack by spending every day of the next four years working. He would be a hero. He should also make the Akure people, who characteristically voted their son, to come tender apologies to him in 2024. This will happen if he breaks their expectations in infrastructure and human capacity empowerment.

FORTY FIVE MINUTES WITH BABAJIDE SANWO-OLU

A little over a month back, I was engrafted into a private sector-driven entourage billed to pay the governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a courtesy visit. It was an opportunity to meet him for the first time and subject his grips and grits to intense mental interrogation. For the about forty-five minutes the visit lasted, I held a sieve to the tall, slim, dark man. As the leader of our entourage made his presentation, Sanwo-Olu fluidly made notes as if he was in a classroom.

At the time to respond, he took me by storm. Critical, informed and potentially dissembling questions shot out of him. He asked his orderly to fetch a map which he instructed laid beside his office table. Like a scientist studying a fallen object from Mars, his pen dimensioned the map and his audience’s area of operation. Sporadically, he asked what Lagos State stood to benefit from the endeavour of his guests. I emerged from that chanced meeting believing that Lagos had a cerebral, perceptive and up-to-the-task governor. I had believed the contrary hitherto.

As a caveat, I was one of those who believed that Sanwo-Olu’s wonky process of emergence would hamper good governance. Thank God he didn’t ask for name introduction of his guests, he probably would have tossed me out of his Marina home. Holding strongly  to the belief that intangible aspects of governance are more substantive and superior to  building infrastructure, and confronted with Lagos’ leadership model under Sanwo-Olu which solidly tethers   to those elements that may look inconsequential but which shape the total architecture of governance, I stood at a crossroads, lost.

Sanwo-Olu has defrosted the Emperor-like ice which encrusts the office of governor of a Nigerian state. He was the first governor to walk into the midst of the #EndSARS protesters, not minding the jibes and harangues that usually follow such actions. Still dwelling on the superficial, he most times does not mirror that sartorial typecast of the Nigerian occupier of office – flowing agbada and all that. Getting addicted to Twitter where I gauge the feel of youngsters, I see his seamless communication of Lagos’ challenges and triumphs as key element of governance.

As he celebrates 500 days in office, though not a Lagosian, I have gone in search of his fare and I must say, they project a developmental strategy that could bail Lagos out of its challenges, if properly harnessed. Lagos ostensibly still has rough roads on which its people travel, literally and metaphorically, but Sanwo-Olu’s fare in road construction in 500 days is said to be ennobling. His office flaunts a record of 357 completed roads from May 2020 to date, tabulated with description and venue for the citizenry to interrogate and disclaim if unreal.

His record-breaking interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the four new Isolation Centers for the disease treatment constructed during the period and other health/environment interventions give hope that with him in the saddle, Lagos may still be the projected oasis in Nigeria’s governmental desert. The governor’s vow to “place special emphasis on maternal healthcare, malaria and water borne diseases,” while “focus(ing) on sanitation and waste management, by ensuring that our drainage systems are functional and kept clean,” seem to be receiving a push, as well as some other sectors of the Lagos economy.

As said earlier, Lagos still has a long way to travel under Sanwo-Olu. The gigantic filth pyramid of Lagos, its bothersome and notorious traffic snarl, though didn’t come in a day, urgently require a push to ensure that Lagos is indeed the desirable 21st Century economic hub that it should be.

#EndSARS: Aisha Buhari Tweets a Music Video Appealing to President over Insecurity in Northern Nigeria

Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari has created a Twitter Hashtag #Achechijamaa which literally means ‘save the people’ and shared it with a music video over worsening insecurity in Northern Nigeria.

PRNigeria could not confirm the name of the singer in the music video which shows images of Security Service Chiefs in meetings with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa.

The song which appeals to President Buhari to address insecurity in the North is rendered in the Hausa Language.

It goes thus: “Please in the name of God, pay attention and intervene on our plight…. The North is crying! Our blood is being shed! Our people are being killed! Our properties and wealth are being destroyed; Baba, Please intervene; Baba Please protect us.

Meanwhile, a coalition of Civil Society Groups in the North has called on the Federal Government to use energy and responsiveness used in addressing the grievances of #EndSARS Campaigners to end insecurity in the Northern part of the country.

The coalition also said those still protesting over SARS should end the protests, as the government has met their demands.

The group added that instead of continuing with the protest, they should join the struggle of Northern groups to end insecurity in the region. The group made the call at a press briefing in Kaduna.

▪︎ By PRNigeria

The Mean, Mischievous Rumours About Oyetola’s Convoy, By Funke Egbemode

“It is unfair to attempt to kill a man and when you do not succeed, to turn around to accuse him of being in a convoy that caused the death of others. It is mean and ungodly“

These rumours, sad and mean, that two people died, killed by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s convoy in the tragic melee that followed the attack on the Governor’s life are  untrue. Totally so.The Governor got out his car in Alekuwodo, trekked to Olaiya junction and when the armed thugs started shooting  at him, he drove towards Abere and back to the Government House.According to reports, the first casualty of the day died around 12.30pm, long before the Governor left the Government House. He died of injuries he sustained in a motor bike accident. It is evil to even think the Governor or his convoy was anywhere near where the poor man died.The second person was reportedly shot at Oke Ayepe area at about 4.30pm.

“I urge you to  disregard the video going round that the Governor’s convoy ‘killed’ anybody. Anybody who knows Osogbo knows Oke Ayepe is neither  on the way to Alekuwodo nor Government House. And the two deaths had nothing to do with the attempt on the Governor’s life. The people who tried to kill Governor Oyetola had it all figured out“

The Governor was back in the Government House by 4.05pm.  Bullet-ridden vehicles, cracked windscreens and axed bonnets and all. We were all shaken by the experience.I grew up in Osun State. I had my secondary education here. Alekuwodo, Olaiya junction are two points far apart from Oke Ayepe. My secondary education I had at Baptist Girls High School  and I wrote my JAMB examination in St Charles Grammar School which was on the other side of town in Oke Ayepe axis. So, I know these places. Google map says the distance between the venue of the protest and Oke Ayepe is 4.8km.  The accusation that the Governor’s convoy went through Oke Ayepe to get to Government House is like accusing a man in Ikeja of shooting another in Ijora in Lagos. It’s both evil and mischievous.

Gov. Adegboyega Oyetola
Gov. Adegboyega Oyetola

I urge you to  disregard the video going round that the Governor’s convoy ‘killed’ anybody. Anybody who knows Osogbo knows Oke Ayepe is neither  on the way to Alekuwodo nor Government House. And the two deaths had nothing to do with the attempt on the Governor’s life. The people who tried to kill Governor Oyetola had it all figured out.Governor Oyetola has ordered a speedy investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of the two men.It is unfair to attempt to kill a man and when you do not succeed, to turn around to accuse him of being in a convoy that caused the death of others. It is mean and ungodly.In all, Governor Oyetola is a man, calm, patient and measured. He’s not given to propaganda. Those determined to pull him down must remember that there is a day called tomorrow.

  • Mrs. Funke Egbemode is the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Osun State.

#EndSARS: Stop soldiers from dispersing protesters, Falana-led group tells Buhari

The Alliance for Survival of COVID-19 and Beyond, a coalition of labour and civil society groups being led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has warned the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), against deploying soldiers to disperse the #EndSARS protesters from the streets.

The human rights activist in a statement on behalf of ASCAB on Sunday in Abuja, also vowed to drag the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, to the International Criminal Court, in The Hague if any of the #EndSARs protesters were killed by any soldiers.

The statement is titled, ‘#EndSARS: Kill protesters, face International Criminal Court, ASCAB cautions Buratai’.

The group specifically urged the Federal Government to withdraw plans to use soldiers to quell the protests that have rocked major cities across Nigeria.

The protests against police brutality which began over a week ago in Lagos and Abuja have spread to about 30 states in the country.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the Nigerian Army said it would commence Exercise Crocodile Smile VI from October 20 to December 31, as part of its effort to enhance the safety and security of the country.

But Falana, who is the Chairman of ASCAB, warned, “Buhari should not invite soldiers to resolve a purely democratic issue that calls for dialogue and constructive engagement.”

ASCAB noted that protests have common features across the world as seen in Hong Kong, United States, France, South Africa, Belarus and even in Sudan.

It added that in no instance were soldiers deployed to suppress the protesters.

“Nigeria wants to set another ugly precedence in world history,” the group said.

It reminded the Federal Government that Operation Crocodile Smile had been declared illegal by a Nigerian Court with competent jurisdiction following legal actions filed by Falana.

It added that efforts by the Chief of Army Staff to challenge the order by approaching the Court of Appeal met a brick wall.

ASCAB recalled that the Federal High Court in July this year, granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Army from such an exercise, in Femi Falana SAN v Chief of Army Staff (FHV/L/CS/1939/19

The group said it was already monitoring and compiling lists of all extra-judicial killings associated with the protests and that Buratai or any soldier involved in any killings would be held personally responsible at the international court.

ASCAB said peaceful protests remained the only way Nigerians are entitled under the Nigerian constitution to register their grievances against a system that suffocates them.

The statement further read, “The plan to deploy soldiers is dangerous.

“It will push Nigeria into the red light district of global reckoning.

“Sending soldiers after school children and leaders of tomorrow shows what future we anticipate for the teeming population of young men and women who have taken to the streets to protest against a system that buries their dreams and shatter their potentials and aspirations.

“Nigerian authorities said on Saturday that soldiers will be deployed this week to bring an end to the weeklong demonstration over police brutality.

“We urge President Mohammadu Buhari not to use soldiers to quell a peaceful, civil protest.

“The protesters have been lawful. The few cases of violence were associated with armed thugs disrupting the protests coupled with the shooting of protesters by security operatives.”

50 Days Without CJ In Cross River State: Okutepa (SAN) Backs EBF Protest, Urges AG Of Lawyers To Join The Protest

Mr. Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, a prominent Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has described as “impunity” the refusal by the Governor of Cross River State to appoint new Chief Judge despite the fact that the office has been vacant for the past 50 days

Okutepa, in a statement made available to TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL), lamented that those elected to defend the Nigerian constitution have ended up desecration the same constitution without remorse.

He also expressed dismay over the fate of Justice Akon whom the governor refused to appoint as Chief Judge on the basis that she is not from the state

“The level of impunity in this country is amazing. Those we elected to protect and defend the constitution of Nigeria are daily desecrating the constitution and they sleep as if nothing happens.

“Cross Rivers State has been without Chief Judge for the past 50 days or so. The Judge who ought to be appointed the Chief Judge has been denied the right to be so appointed not because she is not qualified or that she lacks capacity to discharge the duties of the office but because she is not an indigene of Cross Rivers State even though she is married to a Cross Riverian.

“So Akon J is being discriminated on the basis of where she was born and the state she hails from. Note that Cross Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State where Akon J hails from used to be one state.” Okutepa said

Therefore, he said the Eastern Bar Forum (EBF) has done the right thing by organizing a protest as the legal profession ought not to keep quiet in situations of injustice

He said, “I just read on social media that the Eastern Bar Forum has called for protest. The statement reads in parts:

” ‘You will recall that the issue of the office of the Chief Judge of Cross Rivers State has been a thorny issue till date to the extent that it is now almost fifty (50) days running that the state has being without a Chief Judge or an acting Chief Judge.

‘We cannot continue to be silent in the face of absolute tyranny, indiscipline and affront on the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended’

“I think the EBF is right. The legal profession cannot fold it’s arm and watch the seat of justice being rubbished and desecrated by politicians.”

Okutepa called on lawyers to join the protestest and appealed to the Attorney-General of Cross River State to make his position public.

He said the refusal by Cross River State governor to appoint Justice Akon as Chief Judge is a dangerous precedent that may be copied by some states.

He accordingly urged the National Judicial Council (NJC) to reject any name they may receive from the governor outside Justice Akon

He said, “All well meaning legal Practitioners must rise up and protest this constitutional sacrilege.
The Attorney General of Cross Rivers State must do something and tell his appointor that his failure to do what he needs to do is a breach of Nigerian constitution.

“To send a strong signal, the Attorney General must make public his stand on the matter.The leadership of the legal profession must wake up from slumbers.

“The case of CJ of Cross Rivers State is a test case. If nothing is done more dangerous dimension will follow in other states. FIDA must wake up. I fully support the call for protest.

“NJC must not approve any appointment for the office of CJ Cross Rivers State outside of Akon J. Judges of Cross Rivers State must stand in defence of their collective interests and the office of CJ of the state.”

#EndSARS: Okonjo-Iweala Applauds Resourcefulness & Courage Of Nigerian Youths

A former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala wants more support for the #EndSARS protests in the country so as to achieve a positive outcome.

She also lauded Nigerian youths for their courage and resourcefulness in the protests.

“I applaud the resourcefulness and courage of Nigerian youth in the #EndSARS. Powerful to let your voices be heard peacefully,” she tweeted on her handle on Sunday morning. “Let’s join hands for a positive outcome through a One Nigeria approach.”

EndSARS: Abuja Protester Sues IGP For Assault And Damaged Mobile Phone

A protester in the Federal Capital Territory Elohor Enameguonor has dragged the Inspector General of Police before the Federal High Court in Abuja for bruises she suffered in the hands of police officers during the protest and the damage done to her mobile phone in the process.

In Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1368/2020 filed on her half by the Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative, the Applicant claims:

1. A DECLARATION that the Respondent’s officers’ harassment and damage of the Applicant’s Samsung mobile phone during the End SARS protest in Abuja interfered with the Applicant’s right to freedom of expression and the press guaranteed under Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 ( as amended).

2. GENERAL DAMAGES in the sum of N1, 000, 000 (One Million Naira) as compensatory damages for the violation of the Applicant’s fundamental rights.

3. AND FOR SUCH OTHER ORDERS the court may deem fit to give in the following circumstances.

The matter was filed today, October 16 2020 and yet to be assigned to any judge in the division.

ENDSARS launches online Radio Soro Soke Radio is live…

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Catholic bishop warns FG against deploying soldiers in protest grounds

Alfred Martins, Catholic archbishop of Lagos, has asked the federal government not to deploy soldiers to crack down on #EndSARS protesters across the country.

Protesters have been on the streets in the last one week, demanding better governance.

The protesters called on the authorities to scrap the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) over reports of harassment and brutality.

However, despite the disbanding of SARS, the protests have continued across the country with the youth insisting on total reform of the police.

On Thursday, the army pledged loyalty to President Muhammadu Buhari, vowing to defend democracy “at all cost”.

Reacting in a statement, Martins said the deployment of soldiers in protest grounds will lead to injuries and deaths, as well as escalate tension.

“Such a measure, if adopted, can only lead to injuries and possible deaths, and an escalation of the protests. It has the tendency of turning the largely peaceful protests into a violent one,” he said.

“We therefore urge the federal government to toe the line of engagement in dialogue, listening to the demands of the youth and other well-meaning Nigerians.

“We commend the government for acceding to the demands of the youth. Now, the whole country looks forward to practical steps that would be taken to implement them.

“We believe that a sincere and transparent response to the demands of the young people would go a long way in resolving the present impasse.”

He called on those protesting to ensure their activities are done peacefully and to avoid engaging in violence, as “the whole world is watching us to see how we handle this situation.”Advertisement

On Saturday, the army announced that “Operation Crocodile Smile” will take off across the country from Tuesday.

Many have described this as an attempt to clamp down on protesters.

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