Nigeria is a country of many wonders. The more you look at how things are being done the less you understand. Writing on the Nigerian issues is very tedious, interesting and sometimes very annoying, this is because the country is changing like a chameleon. The more one tries to analyze or understand a particular issue, the more he or she will become confused, worse than even what he or she intended to see.
The End SARs protest has been trending globally which gained a favorite image from the international community, many of the big actors even wrote letters calling the Nigerian Government to quickly address the concern of the young people in respect to the police brutality. The demand of the country’s young people is unarguable true, since we are said to be practicing democracy that allows the citizens to voice out their opinion through demonstrations on anything that affects their freedom or right. However, many times, the protest is usually hijacked by some unpatriotic elements in the country that are more rude and troublesome than the SARS. They vandalized public places including hospitals, police stations and places that provide important services to the general public all in the name of ending police brutality. Are the protesters more than the SARs?
There are viral videos online showing how the hoodlums attacked police officials, killed, injured and burnt their properties. Some even carted away riffles and important devices that are used for tackling security situations all in the name of protesting against police brutality. These hoodlums went on the street with police uniforms and facilities taxing innocent citizens and abusing people’s rights like we are living in a Hobbean state of nature where life is nasty, brutish and short.
Federal government distributed the Covid-19 palliatives to the general public through the state governors with the aim to reduce the suffering during the lockdown but most of these Governors deliberately stored the food items in the warehouse. Recall, the minister of humanitarian claimed that the so-called palliative have been distributed to the target population which generated a lot of controversy with people demanding the minister to prove.
People deliberately create fake news with images and deep fake videos misinforming and installing fears in the mind of the general public through the social media platforms and even some conventional media organizations have become agents of saboteur spreading false news. This situation gave some hoodlums upper hand to attack government and individual stores and looted valuable items worth millions of naira, damaging properties and even attacking some other ethnic groups in some parts of the country all in the name of ending bad governance and police brutality. This madness shows we are all SARs!
Why would somebody go beyond the boundaries of logic and just take to the level of vandalizing, arson and destruction all in the name of ending police brutality and bad governance, this will take Nigeria backward especially now the country is coming out from the corona virus pandemic.
We damaged our images before the international community; no serious nation will openly welcome Nigerians without any fear or suspicion of our indiscipline and poor characters. This will one day hunt us back either through visa restrictions or any kind of assistance seeking from the international communities. Now our enemies will laugh at us
However, the government’s wrong approach to national issues and poor conducive atmosphere for the young people in the country are some of the major factors that give room for this breakdown of law and orders, the proliferation of light and small weapons in the country as a result of these incidences are immeasurable. If care is not taken, the crime rate and human right abuses will be automatically escalated
The end of SARS protest has come and gone with bitter lessons. Through the protest, the youths who want to take over leadership from the older generation have proven to lack discipline and patriotism. The over one week protests staged across the country indicated we are not different from the notorious defunct SARS. One can conclude that with the ignorance and madness displayed by youth during the protests and the hoarding of palliative meant for the downtrodden by some state governors, Nigerians are worse than the disbanded SARS.
Idris Mohammed is a Peace & Conflict Expert, Wrote this piece from Funtua, Katsina State.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Sky Daily
