By Vincent Uba
SIR: When Nigerian youth embarked on the protest against police brutality and other infringement of citizens’ rights in the country, well-meaning Nigerians and groups rose in commendation and appreciation of them for taking the bull by the horn on an age-long problem of police brutality. For decades, this special unit of the police, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), had inflicted pains and sorrows on the citizens to unbearable extent, hence the #ENDSARS protest was welcomed.
No sooner had the protest began than the federal government swiftly disbanded the SARS outfit and promised a comprehensive police reform, in response to the demands of the protesters. This was a move that was rare by any government in the history of the country and so would have earned her applauses.
At this point, one would have thought that the #ENDSARS protest should have stopped with the protesters leaving the streets. But it continued for two weeks running, dragging the situation to dangerous dimension of looting, destruction of lives and property of innocent persons, climaxing in the unfortunate incident at Lekki toll plaza in Lagos.
Curiously and unfortunately, the Cable News Network (CNN) recently came out with a report based on what they said were their findings/investigations, which to all intent and purposes were not only restricted and lopsided, but also unbalanced.
The questions now are, why restrict the investigations on the Lekki saga? Why did CNN not investigate what happened in other parts of the country, where prior to the Lekki episode, witnessed lootings, destruction of lives and property by the protesters?
Why didn’t CNN investigate the activities of the protesters who were ironically doing what they were protesting against prior to the Lekki issue? Did CNN not know that innocent persons were denied their fundamental freedom of movement and prevented from carrying on with their businesses to fend for their livelihood?
Allegations abound that the protests were sponsored and financed by persons who wanted to destabilize the government. Why didn’t CNN beam its investigative searchlight in this direction? Corporate organisations’ facilities, government parastatals and individual property destroyed, run into trillions of naira and a lot of persons rendered jobless as a result.
Couldn’t CNN have investigated this aspect as part of its corporate civic responsibility?
When all these were happening, the protesters were called by well-meaning Nigerians to calm down, leave the streets and be patient with the government as it had responsibly displayed wisdom by disbanding the SARS outfit, which was the reason for the protest.
The persistence of the protest after the disbandment of SARS became curious and raised a lot of questions as to the real reasons for it. Was it not necessary for CNN to have investigated this aspect and ask the youth why they remained on the streets?
CNN should have undertaken a thorough and in-depth investigation of the #ENDSARS protest across the country with a view to unraveling the real motives for the protest, especially after the federal government had ended the SARS and promised police reform. Again CNN only relied on the information supplied by some of the protesters with videos that are difficult to ascertain if such videos were actually authentic.
Being in a hurry to broadcast such information could be interpreted as a ploy by CNN to smear the government and pitch the citizens against it, thus worsening the already precarious situation.
- Vincent Uba, Lagos.
