IANA Blog- October 2022

Happy October,

For this month I wanted to take a look back at the Two-Month anniversary of the #EndSARS Movement, the social movement and series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria, especially of the Nigerian police force known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). 

SARS was created in 1992 to supposedly deal with crimes such as robbery, car theft, kidnapping and possession of firearms. Instead of doing that, SARS rather would be involved in blackmail, corruption, torture, illegal “Stop and searches,” too many incidents to name. There have been protests before against SARS, but I guess you can say a “turning point” came in 2020.

Of course in 2020, the year that was defined by the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, worldwide lockdowns, climate disasters, and of course, the protests and civil uprisings brought upon by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in the U.S. The same protests and civil uprisings that didn’t just reach everywhere in the U.S., but around the world. We were seeing protests from Australia to Europe. I still remember seeing British Nigerian actor John Boyega give his speech to protesters in London, showing his solidarity with the deceased victims of police brutality, such as Floyd, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin and Stephen Lawrence (a Black teenager who was murdered in a racially-motivated attack in London and whose case was mishandled by Police). The Floyd uprisings definitely reached Africa, from South Africa, to Kenya, to Ghana, to Nigeria. Protests were happening on Victoria Island, Lagos and were also protesting over the murder of Uwalia Omozuwa, and the murder of Tina Ezekwe, who was killed by Lagos State police officers. The George Floyd uprising, of course, was not the only thing that Nigerians were protesting against. As mentioned, this year was not the only time that Nigerians would protest against SARS.

October 2020, mass demonstrations would appear throughout all of Nigeria, especially after on October 3rd, when a SARS cop had attacked and shot a young man in Delta State. After that video went viral online, there were outcries and the hashtag #EndSARS trending. Protests would continue after that video, especially the series of protests that would lead to the Lekki Massacre.

October 20, 2020. The date the Lekki massacre happened, where the Nigerian Army opened fire on unarmed protesters near the toll gate at Lekki. 12 protesters were killed and there was even more uproar about what was going on in Nigeria. 

It became so big that Nigerian celebrities joined the protests/movement. From Davido to Burna Boy to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and of course celebrities here in the U.S. would take part, from Beyonce to Rihanna, the EndSARS Movement was making an impact.

As of 2022, SARS was supposedly dismantled in 2020, but was replaced with the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit, which lead to Nigerians to use the hashtag #EndSWAT on Twitter and protests and demonstrations would continue. As the Anniversary of the EndSARS Movement passes, we should remember that this is not over.

Rest in Power to the victims who died at the hands of SARS, especially those in the Lekki Massacre.