[ad_1]
AAfter weeks of rioting, men in fluorescent coats were cleaning ash and blood from the streets of Lagos on Saturday. But for many like 22-year-old Anthony Oyodele, memories of soldiers firing live ammunition at hundreds of peaceful protesters at a toll booth in Lagos, killing at least 12 people, will be harder to clean up. “Whether it’s here, in Yaba or in Alausa, we all saw the atrocities online. It is not possible that we go through there and not remember ”.
A wave of protests that erupted in Nigeria against the now officially disbanded Sars police unit, and more generally against police brutality, has faced the brutality they hoped could finally end. In several protests, police units have responded with force and groups of youths with knives and sticks have attacked the protesters. “It doesn’t make sense,” Oyodele said. “We were just demanding that they stop harassing and killing us, but they still responded by making it worse.”
More than 56 people have died since the demonstrations began in Nigeria more than two weeks ago, Amnesty International has said. “End Sars”, a predominantly online campaign against the Special Anti-Theft Squad (Sars), a police unit riddled with a history of extrajudicial executions, torture and extortion, flooded the streets in early October. In a country where peaceful protests are often suppressed, the demonstrations were met with new acts of violence by the police.
The cries for change in Nigeria, largely from a younger generation in a country where the youth are the largest demographic, have been met with lack of urgency, bewilderment and threats of force by a generation of aging ruling officials. , led by the 77-year-old president, Muhammadu Buhari. For much of the past few weeks, the president has been aloof, silent as outrage mounted in the country over protest abuses across the country. On Thursday, after widespread international criticism of the killings and his response, he did not directly mention the fatal shootings or order an investigation.
Calling for an end to the demonstrations, he warned the protesters to “resist the temptation to be used by subversive elements to cause chaos.”
The Lagos shootings by security officials on Tuesday left the country and many around the world in horror. Images posted after the events and streamed live on social media showed soldiers firing live rounds at fleeing protesters at the toll booth in the more prosperous Lekki area of Lagos. After the killings, the army denied that any of its soldiers were at the scene, claiming that images of the killings were manipulated. The governor of Lagos said there were no casualties.
After the killings at the tollbooth, Oyodele lay on the ground, knocked over by a body covered in blood as he fled from the police. When officers passed him, chasing other protesters, he fled into a nearby bush and waited for hours as bullets rang through the air. The Nigerian authorities had announced a series of policies in recent weeks to placate protesters and reform the police, yet attacks by security forces and groups of thugs on protests were the clearest response to their demands. He said. “They would rather send us weapons than implement real measures or make real changes,” he said.
In recent years, the government of President Buhari has made numerous promises to reform, reform, or dissolve the Sars. On October 12, in response to mounting protests, he announced the dissolution of the unit. The reforms are the most comprehensive ever announced by his government, a measure of the pressure imposed by the protest movement. However, the widespread feeling that they are not going far enough has fueled the government’s consternation.
“There is a generational problem,” said Chioma Agwuegbo, an activist. “Nigeria has the highest youth demographic in Africa. Young people are making fair demands, but you can see from some of the statements by government officials that they remain derogatory. “
The impact of the killings has left the protest movement reeling. The twenty-four-hour curfews adopted by many states are slowly being relaxed, but have effectively shut down the protests. However, anger is boiling over and could provoke further protests.
The protests have offered a sense of new possibilities for a younger generation frustrated by poor governance in Africa’s most populous country. They have spawned an ecosystem of support groups, coordinating aid and providing logistics across the country.
The Feminist Coalition, a group of young women, and the End Sars Response team were just two of those groups. They installed phone lines for protesters, provided medical assistance to the injured, and organized ambulances and private security in protests across the country.
For Ariet Honest, a 23-year-old artist and model, marching to take down Sars has been her first protest, prompted by several occasions when she was searched and harassed by the police. “It’s inspiring to see our power, our unity,” he said. “We are not even asking for much. Stop killing and harassing us, that’s all. “
