By Adeola Ogunlade
The Brand Ambassador African Diaspora Forum, Prince Debo Adesina, has appealed to #EndSARS protesters to embrace peace and engage the government on institutional changes that will enhance proper policing and good governance.
In an interview with The Nation, Adesina said: “#EndSARS to me would have been more justifiable had it been that they were able to withdraw after a while and sit on the roundtable for further discussions.
“But instead they (the youths) prolonged the protest and in the process allowed miscreants to hijack a good cause!”
Adesina applauded the commitment of #EndSARS protesters, which according to him, will be recorded in the annals of civil rights movement in Nigeria.
He said: “My stand is that it would be better if the #EndSARS protesters had chosen leaders whom they trusted to speak on behalf of the cause but unfortunately hoodlums and miscreants infiltrated and hijacked what started out so nobly and so beautifully.
“From here on, we should all embrace peace and harmony, and allow the leaders to overturn the current situation to a developmental process by talking to the demands of the people in terms of Policing, and other matters.”
He stressed the need for autonomous policing by regions while the Federal Government focuses more on the Army.
Adesina, who is also the Founder of Nigerian Lives Matter, a rights advocacy initiative based in South Africa, criticised President Muhammadu Buhari in the wake of the violence that followed the protests.
Assessing the speech, he said: “I am sad because he did not seem particularly moved, and made no attempt to put any effort into making a good speech, even in the light of the international communities’ observations and advice.
“He went ahead instead, on his trajectory, and was a bit more of a soldier than a democrat.
READ ALSO: Diaspora African Forum honours Mbanefo
“It was not surprising to hear him saying what he said. He made no reference to the killings at the Lekki toll gate but he was able to talk about the Oba of Lagos Palace that was ransacked by irate youths.”
Adesina also condemned the shooting of protesters in Lekki, Lagos.
He said: “Tuesday’s shooting was a Black Tuesday and in a democratic set up like Nigeria, the Army or soldiers should not have been brought into the engagement in such a scenario.
“Anti-riot police should have been deployed to manage the curfew imposed by the Lagos state government.”
He recalledNigerian Lives Matter was borne out of the desperation and determination to change the popular global narrative of Nigerians.
