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Protesters picket in front of the Nigerian embassy in Pretoria. There was a simultaneous protest in front of the Parliament in Cape Town and previous protests in other parts of the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. (Photo: Phill Magakoe)
As the police imposed a 24-hour curfew in Lagos after the army reportedly fired on protesters there, hundreds of angry Nigerians living in South Africa marched peacefully to their country’s high commission in Pretoria to protest against the failures of the Nigerian government.
All Nigerians in South Africa have a story about why they are here, said Michael Ijeoma, a 42-year-old businessman who went out with about 1,000 of his compatriots to protest in front of the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria in solidarity with the # EndSARS protests at home. .
Many of these stories involve young people who feel that Nigeria is not a place that encourages or enables people to reach their full potential. “At some point you get frustrated and just want to leave, which is why most of us left,” Ijeoma said.
There was a simultaneous protest in front of Parliament in Cape Town and previous protests in other parts of the world, including in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
“The [#EndSARS] the protest is really about fixing the country, ”said Ijeoma, who has lived in South Africa for 15 years.
“You know, Nigeria must not be broken,” he said, referring to the growing diaspora, but also referring to secessionist groups, like the Biafra movement, which have been gaining ground in recent years.
“I prefer a Nigeria of 200 million people to a Nigeria that is a quarter of that, so we want a Nigeria that is functional, that gives us hope, that can at least become something so that we can reach our potential.
“A group of rogue police is not enough to set our country on fire,” said Ijeoma.
“#EndSARS is an epitome of a system that is dysfunctional, that has no vision, a leadership that does not see the value in its youth.”
The protests in Nigeria, which have been going on for almost two weeks, worsened on Tuesday night when soldiers reportedly opened fire and killed protesters in the Lekki district of Lagos after the government announced that there would be a touchdown. It remains after 4 in the afternoon.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said in a tweet that one person had died in hospital while 25 others had been hospitalized, but United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said there had been “multiple deaths “and urged the authorities to reduce the escalating situation.
Amnesty International said it was investigating “credible but disturbing evidence” of excessive use of force and found that at least 12 protesters had died, while Human Rights Watch urged authorities to “immediately remove the military from the streets” and prosecute those responsible. The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for Nigerian Red Cross Society volunteers to be given access as first responders to do their work unimpeded and deliver first aid to the wounded.
Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday apologized for the “incident” that took place in Lekki and pleaded with protesters to “give peace a chance.” However, many of the protesters on the streets of Pretoria said they would like to hear President Muhammadu Buhari himself address Nigerians on the issue, as the elderly head of state has not appeared in recent weeks. On Wednesday he issued a statement through his spokesman calling for “understanding and calm,” adding that he was committed to justice for the victims of brutality. He also said that police reforms demanded by protesters after the dissolution of SARS were picking up pace.
In South Africa, the Inkatha Freedom Party called on President Cyril Ramaphosa, as president of the African Union (AU), to “step up and act” on the situation in Nigeria and raise the matter with the UN Security Council, while that the African Transformation Movement also called on the AU to act. The Cosatu trade union federation supported the protests and said that even after the recent dissolution of SARS “the newly created police unit will be the same threat with new uniforms.”
The hashtag #ENDSARS has been used on Twitter since 2017 to protest the actions of Nigeria’s Special Anti-Theft Squad (SARS), but the recent physical protests were sparked when a video went viral that allegedly showed SARS agents killing a anonymous young man in the southern Delta state.
SARS Nigeria was created in 1984 to combat the rise in crime and kidnappings, but Amnesty International documented at least 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial killings by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020. Celebrities have been joined the protests and Twitter has assigned a special icon to the hashtag.
Although the protest in Pretoria was planned well in advance, the incident the night before appears to have prompted more people to take to the streets. A protester carried a banner printed with the image of Brigadier General Francis Omata, whom protesters allege was the officer in charge of the soldiers in Lekki at the time of the incident, along with a picture of spent bullets. (The Nigerian military, in a tweet, denied that the soldiers were deployed there.) Another group of protesters had a picture of Buhari on his car window calling him the “chief assassin”, while other protesters carried signs that read “Buhari must go” and “Buhari is a bad fucking pikin [child]”.
The official printed posters – the organizers wanted the event to be non-partisan – carried messages that included: “They are killing more than protecting us,” “We are a nation. We feel a pain ”,“ Stop killing the dreams of young Nigerians ”and“ A genuine restructuring of Nigeria begins. Start a wellness program suitable for all Nigerians.
Hashtags like #NigerianLivesMatter printed on T-shirts echoed the #BlackLivesMatter movement that gained traction in the United States in July after George Floyd’s death at the hands of the police. Nigerian singer Eedris Abdulkareem’s 2004 hit Jaga Jaga was one of the songs that rang out over the speakers in the back of a bakkie at Wednesday’s protest.
Despite their anger, the protesters were largely peaceful, although tempers flared when they demanded that Nigerian High Commissioner Kabir Bala address them and threw empty plastic water bottles at the door of the high commission. . The police officers were prepared with rubber bullets, but the tension was reduced and there was no need to use them. Bottles of water and other rubbish were collected by the protesters themselves when they dispersed shortly after noon.
One protester, Sam Apata, 39, founder of the 67CEOs Foundation, which advises CEOs in South Africa, called the march “strategic” as the protesters want Ramaphosa and the AU to act.
“The theme of the AU for 2020 is to silence the weapon, but how can the AU say that and then the same weapon was used against peaceful protesters in Nigeria?” he said.
Another protester, 24-year-old politics master’s student Zhayna Olaitan, said that “the whole world needs to understand that this is the Nigerians’ struggle against the Nigerian government during long years of police brutality.”
He said that there should be a change in the mindset of the police, but also an awareness that there should be a change of government.
“The government that we have doesn’t care. It begins with young people who get involved in politics. We cannot leave the leadership of the country and also Africa as a whole, we cannot leave leadership to older people who are isolated from reality ”. DM
