A few Thoughts Covid-19

6 min readNov 17, 2020

Almost 30 days have passed since the Lekki Massacre which will forever be a highlight and a dark moment for the #EndSARS movement which had been borne out of the desire by a younger generation of Nigerians to demand better from our elected officials. There are so many unanswered questions till today owing to the nature of what happened that day and the next couple of days that followed, but as a matter of posterity, it is important that as many accounts and opinions of the incidents be recorded in one way or the other lest those who wield power in Nigeria might choose to find it convenient to ignore what happened or hijack the narrative altogether. As we have seen since the amalgamation and the establishment of the country now known as Nigeria, those in power have succeeded in reframing incidences such as the Aba women’s ‘riot’ and the incidents that led to the Biafra war.

The ability of those in power to determine the narrative can never be underestimated and the clear signs have been there from the beginning; the almost complete censorship perpetuated by this administration on media outlets didn’t start today, previous administrations have gone to varying degrees of lashing out at the mainstream media houses but somehow, the Buhari regime has shown a knack for topping every low previous administration have attained.

When the protests began, the calls for EndSARS were greeted by the regime with snark and a perceived dismissive tone. What the government didn’t expect was a resolute and organized protest, But that wasn’t the mistake the government made, this regime wrongfully believed it had the monopoly of violence. In a society where insecurity is widely pervasive without effective measures to ensure such a situation is properly under control but is instead given an illusion of normalcy, the knobs and buttons to set off a fire are not out of reach. Then it must be recognized that those who have constantly instigated violent confrontations have been principally government security forces, government-backed stage actors, and outright militants/terrorists. The truth that has hardly been written is that protesters have hardly been the one to cause riots or widespread vandalism.

From the 17th and 18th of October, when little confrontations began to occur in such places as Benin, Osogbo (this happened earlier than the 17th), Lagos and Abuja, people were beginning to recognize the patterns and see the obvious mistakes; the protesters were being instigated, and they were not going to retaliate. They could see the long game and they could see that violence was not going to help them get there. On the other hand, the regime chose to handle the protests like a typical political situation; trying to pinpoint its leaders, using violence and targeted harassment to rattle a few people.

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In the aftermath of the deaths and destruction that followed the actions of state actors after peaceful protesters had dispersed, the government immediately went on the offensive, firstly roping the looters and violent activities in with the EndSARS protest when by all indication it was the security apparatus that had failed to either be pre-emptive or pro-active when violence and looting began. How government officials failed to see how the calls for police reform were consistent with the attitudes and inactivity of the police force is completely beyond me. Instead, we saw government officials go on an apology tour around police installations, acting as if they were the original aggrieved party, it truly was perplexing to see.

The targeted harassment and persecution continue with personal and business accounts blocked, people being forced to seek asylum in foreign countries, media houses being fined for airing actual footage of killings and violence. The government forgets that inasmuch as voter turn out has somewhat given them a sense of voter apathy towards their activities, that notion can easily be changed, and it will change. There is an awakening in this young generation, a demographic which is steadily growing and has exceeded over 60% of the national population. People are seeing the manipulation and selfishness of the oppressors present in this regime, people are seeing the insensitivity and thievery the elected representatives have perpetuated and are beginning to ask the right questions of this regime. These oppressors need to ask themselves pertinent questions regarding the role they want to play in moving this country forward, and if all of them were honest they would not bother attempting to seek elective office in the next election year.

A few Thoughts Covid-19

Written by Dw Uganda