The Various Dimensions of the New Wave 1
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”. - Desmond Tutu.
The current wave of protests in Nigeria has been tagged as the mother of all protests in our history. This is a country that has witnessed the Aba women riot of 1929 where women protested against direct taxation and the introduction of new local courts, standing up against injustice and exploitation by the colonialists. This country has seen the Ogoni protest of 1933 that was birthed by the late writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa. Saro-Wiwa formed The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) to fight for the exploitation of natural resources of Ogoniland. This region of the country was pillaged in the name of oil exploration with no plans for community development. The Ogoni protests led to the arrest and hanging of Saro-Wiwa and nine MOSOP officials. We have even witnessed the Occupy Nigeria protest of 2012 that was the first to employ the use of social media. The protest itself was a result of the rejection of the fuel subsidy removal. At the time, the protest was regarded as political and spearheaded by the opposing party in Nigeria. However, the reason it became popular was down to the fact that petroleum and gas are central to the economic mainframe of the nation. Whether political or not, people were frustrated by the impact of subsidy removal from fuel. The BringBackOurGirls movement also saw overwhelming international support when in 2014 Chibok girls of Borno state were abducted by the terrorist group, Boko Haram. With solidarity from international figures and agencies, the abduction was a disgrace and a glaring example of political within the Nigerian government. It turned out to be one of the many issues on which the 2015 presidential elections was centred on. Evidently, there have always been several failures on the part of the Nigerian government and citizens have demonstrated their displeasure through mass protests. Despite this, the government is historically known for responding to the protests with violence and disregard to the demands of its citizens. unsurprisingly, the End SARS are not uncharted waters for Nigerians.
The wave of End SARS Protests
The first wave of end SARS happened in 2017. SARS (the Special Anti-Robbery Squad) is a unit of the Nigeria Police Force that was formed in 1992 to combat armed robbery, kidnapping and other related crimes. The unit became infamously known for its extrajudicial killings, extortion, blackmail and dehumanization of Nigerians. The genesis of this inhumane and callous treatment cannot be specifically dated. Nonetheless, one can assume that SARS injustices kicked off at the turn of the millennium. Police brutality is not recent. It has always been a feature in Nigerian history. In 1977, the Afrobeat King, Fela Anikulapo sang about police brutality. Even as far back as colonial Nigeria, police carried batons to put citizens into order. Thus earning them the title “o̩ló̩pa” in Yoruba which is hermeneutically translated to mean the carrier of stick. A term still used today. Sadly, police brutality is not alien to history in Nigeria but SARS operatives redefined what it meant to be brutal.
In 2017 due to several reports on the social media platform, Twitter. The phrase “end SARS” began to trend. After that, Segun Awosanya (Segalink) became the face of the protest against police brutality. He acted as messiah to many youths who were arrested and extorted by SARS. The incessant arrest of Nigerian youths became a social media outrage. It became so intended that it got the attention of the presidency. In 2018, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo ordered that overhaul and reform but it achieved nothing. Since then, SARS operatives have gone on to shoot over 400 hundred Nigerian Youths, leaving at least half of that number dead. They have also arrested thousands of Nigerians without charging them to court. Many of the victims of this notorious unit are left damaged both psychologically and physically.
The second wave started in the first week of October when there were reports of attacks on the youths by SARS operatives in Ughelli Delta state. This led to people bringing to the fore repressed traumas they have suffered from the claws of this same unit and widespread social media outrage that eventually snowballed into the #EndSARS October protests.
Impact of Traditional and New Media
At the beginning of the new wave of #EndSARS protests, the traditional media were absolutely silent. When they eventually picked up the story, they under-reported it and framed the protests as another Twitter outrage that would fizzle out with time. They underestimated the youths and the importance of Twitter. The relevance of new media cannot be jettisoned because the role it plays is indelible. Some years ago, news outlets controlled the media. People went to newspaper stands to read the news and discuss it with fellow readers. They argued with passion, swore on ignorance, shirts soaked in sweat and saliva spitting out once in a while. Now we do all that from the comfort of our homes on social media. Even traditional media relies heavily on new media as a source. From Donald Trump's antics to New York Times reports all of these can be found on twitter.
The traditional media failed Nigerians. They acted as though there was no protest going on. In communication theory, the news media can be independent, state-owned or repressed by the government In the last weeks, what Nigerians have seen is traditional media as a state controlled outlet. They were repressed and presented a faux image to the older generation who still glue their eyes to the televisions and ears to radios. However, the buck of the youths are on social media platforms, energetically and passionately pushing out news and reporting to the whole what is going on in Nigeria. In the famous American Trial “The Chicago 7 Trial”, one of the chanted phrases during the trial was “The whole world is watching”. Such a profound statement. With this sort of awareness, the younger generation took on to Twitter and made sure #EndSARS became the number one trending topic that got the attention of international agencies and figures. With Nigeria stationed strategically to be an international disgrace, the government started taking little steps. I believe they are little steps because they were steps they were forced to take, not that they were willing. They are also little steps because they have not yielded any desired change. The disbandment of SARS was then announced but contrarily, their operatives were still on the streets the next day, killing, maiming, framing and extorting Nigerians. Between the traditional and the new media, the new media has done excellently in shining lights on the conduct of disregard of the human rights of Nigerians. New media platforms are now being launched everyday to present the world to us as it is without any political coloring and fine tuning.