Tayo Oke
drtayooke@gmail.com
The #EndSARS protest in its current form has come and gone. It is time for a post mortem, soul-searching, and a few sobering thoughts on what just happened, and what it could have been. The most critical aspect of the protest, in my view, was the leadership or leader(less) dimension of the phenomenon. And, it was indeed a phenomenon; a moment in history. We were led to believe that the protest was not organised, not coordinated, managed, or directed by any individual or group of individuals; that it simply took a life of its own. How amazing, if only that was exactly true. Having been directly involved in high-octane protests in my time, it goes without saying that someone, some like-minded comrades, somewhere, sat together, planned, and foresaw the outcome. It is like a bomb suddenly going off in the middle of the market, creating mayhem, throwing off people in a stampede, running helter-skelter for cover, and no one claiming responsibility. Quite obviously, someone made the device, and also quite obviously, someone identified the location and timing for its detonation. So, it is not strictly true that no one organised or led the #EndSARS protest; what is true is that the shadowy figures propelling it chose to operate below the radar. No one stepped up to the plate at the critical juncture, when it mattered. That was a strategic blunder.
The media tried in vain to pin down a couple of celebrities here and there, to own up to their involvement in organising it, but to their credit, they declined. The reason for this is not far-fetched. Once a ‘leader’ or ‘leaders’ have been so identified, such a person or group of persons become the target of the authorities as agents of influence, even worse, as objects of ridicule and attack. That is the lesson of history. That said, spontaneous or leader(less) uprisings do work with varying degrees of success, under different circumstances. It worked for Poland, in the 1980s. It brought the country’s long-serving communist regime crashing down, following several street battles. Benin Republic in 1990, and Togo the following year, a spontaneous gathering of all sections of the civil society created an unmanageable situation for the sit-tight dictators, Mathew Kerekou (Benin) and General Gnassingbe Eyadema (Togo), who succumbed to the will of the people as expressed in the streets. Czechoslovakia’s spontaneous “Velvet Revolution” righted an historical wrong by splitting the country in two, peacefully, in 1993, having co-existed as culturally diverse, and ‘united’ entity since 1918. The “Arab Spring” in 2010 and beyond was also spontaneous; it was, more specifically, online inspired just like the #EndSARS was. It led to a series of uprisings across the Arab world, starting with Tunisia, where people protested against authoritarian rule, demanded and secured a regime change. All the spontaneous uprisings succeeded without much bloodshed. Can we view the #EndSARS protest in the same breath? After all, the police disbanded the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, and are now establishing ‘SWAT’. How long will it be before we see #EndSWAT? Or, should it be strangled at birth anticipating what it too might turn out to be?
Without meaning to play down the spirited effort of the youths, some of whom came out of their cocoons in unprecedented numbers to demand change, the protest was little more than a damp squib, I am afraid. Never mind the police climbing down on the SARS issue, and the stomach-churning sight of politicians trying to ingratiate themselves with the protesters. The protest itself has ended in a spectacular failure. Why? Because #EndSARS was not, in substance, a policing issue per se; it was totemic, and a subtext for a much larger demand for fundamental change in the character and shape of government. It was a denunciation of bad, corrupt, pilfering and insensitive political elite who care for no one but themselves. The youths are tired of living in a country with abundant riches, largely frittered away on lawmakers’ humongous salaries and emoluments. First, they become commissioners, then Representatives, then, transform into governors, then, reappear as senators, then, metamorphosed into ministers, then, become party chieftains in a life-time of political round-tripping. And, with uniformed officers doubling as their personal bodyguards, they pick up jumbo pays, collect rents as they laugh all the way to the bank. They then put their cronies and siblings into public and political offices, secure for themselves a life of opulence and splendour in spatial dwellings at home and in choice locations in Dubai and Western cities, whilst the Nigerian youths in this country with no access, no contact, no connection, go begging for food even after coming out of university with certificates that take them nowhere.
Moreover, the youths are tired of sham and inconsequential elections built on empty campaign promises. They are tired of widespread and endemic corruption that sees no end in sight. Above all, they are tired and fed up to the back teeth of senseless killing of innocent souls and wanton looting of the commonwealth. They are angry seeing their future callously mortgaged to satisfy the unquenchable thirst for self-aggrandisement by politicians. In short, they wanted, and still want regime change; a New Deal in a new Nigeria.
The protest started very well because of its leader(less) coloration, but ended abruptly and badly, ironically, because of its lack of leadership. A leader(less) campaign can only take you so far, dear youths. There comes a point where leaders must emerge from the shadows; where individuals must step forward; where grievances must be properly articulated; where demands must be tabled; where coordination must take place; where the masses must be mobilised to maximum effect. Otherwise, you open room for (sponsored) reactionary elements, with the sole aim of putting their special mark of violence and mayhem on a just cause. The police and the military then step in to restore ‘law and order’, as state governments are forced to impose dusk-to-dawn curfews. That is exactly what has happened in this case. If one looks at successful, spontaneous uprisings elsewhere, there was not a single one that remained leader(less) for too long. History also tells us that where such protests continue leader(less), the end product is usually bloody. Examples of this was first in the Egyptian uprising of January 2011. It was leader(less) at such a critical moment that the military saw an opportunity to stage a coup, shooting hundreds of protesters in cold blood, and installing General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the military strongman. He later took off his army fatigue, became a “civilian”, contested and won a spurious election in 2014, which transformed him into president to this day.
The other leader(less) uprising that turned bloody was Libya, following the overthrow of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011. He had been in power since 1969. Sure enough that the ‘uprising’ was in fact engineered by America’s CIA. It was, nonetheless, popular and greeted with cheers by the populace. In truth, Gaddafi was a benevolent dictator, who overstayed his welcome. The vacuum created by the leader(less) protest in Libya erupted into factions amongst various armed groups, which have since carved up the country into enclaves, and are still at a low-intensity war with each other till this day. The Nigerian military, and President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired army General, would have been well briefed on this. The leadership vacuum left by the #EndSARS protest could well have snowballed into something pretty ugly for the country. The energy it created and the emotion generated clearly struck a chord with the populace, and around the world. Shame it was allowed to peter out without much consequence. But, hey, all is not lost for the gallant youths. Remember, he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.
