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Voice of reason

by Bioreports
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October 2020 is one month that would maintain a remarkable chapter in the Nigerian history book for long. It was a month when the young ones got tired of the rot in the governance system and flew into a rage nation-wide. They blocked the highways and demanded that, as a starting point, police brutality that has found expression mainly in activities of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) must end. They came up with five demands, all bordering on immediate scrapping of the unit and reform of the policing system. Government accepted all the demands, set up a committee to work out the modalities and got the Inspector General of Police to announce immediate dissolution of SARS and its replacement with SWAT- Special Weapons and Tactics unit.

All that the Federal Government, governors and the police authorities did in response went down well with most members of the public at the beginning, except that the level of the rage ought to have commanded more energy by the President. President Muhammadu  Buhari chose to act by proxy, speaking through other functionaries of his government until critical sections of the people joined the youth in demanding a broadcast, which he only reluctantly acceded to. By the time, the inaction had given room to awakening of the criminal elements that seized on the moment and unleashed mayhem on the society, destroying anything in view. In Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna, Plateau, Kano, Adamawa, Taraba, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Rivers, Anambra, Imo, Edo and Delta states, among others, the hungry ones who became angry swooped on warehouses, residences of the affluent ones, public buildings and media houses, stealing, destroying and generally engaging the state in a game of wits. With the police chased out of the roads and the security forces generally wrong-footed by the turn of affairs, it was easy for them to operate freely for days.

It is unfortunate that, rather than rationally plot a good response, the Federal Government is turning on the same young ones whose activities it had praised as legitimate and peaceful. When one is not stopped from travelling by seizing her international passport at the airport, others have their accounts frozen. Twenty of them. It was to a bewildered country that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the security forces blurted out that the accounts were frozen in the course of investigating the flow of terrorism fund. How, when did that start? Government has not been able to explain this. It has taken a step further by taking a motion ex-parte to a Magistrate’s Court in Abuja to legitimise the freezing of the account. This government should realise that this is a democracy where governance is not at the whims and caprices of a few. If indeed the accounts were found to contain toxic fund, why hasn’t the government come up with detailed explanation about the terrorism charge? Terrorism is a serious charge that should not be reduced to just a label.

It is good that the youth whose accounts were frozen have approached the courts to lift the lid. This is the road to travel in a democracy, but government should take heed how it responds to citizens’ agitations. The right to protest peacefully is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. It is a duty of the electorate to watch government keenly and ensure that all promises made during electioneering are being fulfilled. This is what the youth who have hitherto been blamed for being docile decided to do in October. That was not a crime. We agree with the Senate that the youths should not be ignored. It is obvious that they merely voiced out the concern of the general citizenry and, if the Buhari administration refuses to accede to their demands, merely sweeping matters under the carpet and buying time, believing that all would soon be forgotten, it will soon discover that times have changed. For a protest not to turn into a revolt, and a revolt to revolution, those at the helm of affairs must listen to public opinion. For so long, the people have grumbled and murmured about the running of state apparatus, it is apparent that the murmur will not only grow loud now, but will find active expression in protests difficult to contain.

The Senate should not stop at remonstrating with the executive; it should invoke both the formal and informal channels of ensuring that something concrete is done in pacifying the angry. The hungry must be fed, the unemployed want jobs and the alienated want to be participants. Unless this is done urgently, Nigeria may witness another conflagration in due course. It is not enough to hear the protesters, government’s action should show that things have changed.

We have nothing against government punishing those who committed arson, stole or killed under the cover of the #EndSARS protest. But we would be worried if the objective of the terrorism charge is to instill fear in people who may want to protest bad governance in the land in the future.

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