End SARS; The Voice Of The Youths Transcends Social Media

BY AMARACHI OKEH

For the past 3 days on Nigerian streets, there have been a revolution going on – the #ENDSARS campaign that started on Twitter.

What started as a medium where young Nigerians are able to share their grievances on the maltreatment they receive from the FSARS team soon translated into a full blown protests in all corners of the country from Lagos to Abuja, Benin to Abeokuta, Enugu to Awka.

The protests seek to address the negative stereotyping of the Nigerian youths by the police, especially the SARS team.

For context on this, any Nigerian youth who owns an iPhone, drives a Mercedes Benz, owns a laptop, has dreaded hairstyle, has tattoos or carries dyed hair is perceived as a “yahoo boy.”

This stereotyping has seen many youths die because they: refused to open their phones to be searched, refuse to be extorted of their hard earned money.

The refusal of these youths to be searched causes them to be shot without reason and remorse. Some SARS officials have been caught on tape saying “I will kill you and nothing will happen,” and truthfully to their words, nothing happens. No SARS operative is held accountable and the menace never stops.

The voice of the youths these days have taken over social media and translated to real life protests however it is astonishingly frustrating that the government has kept mute, the traditional media channels have unlooked and every corporate organisation the citizens could count on is mum, why?

I suspect that with the silence from the government, their aim is to see that the youths are exhausted and achieve nothing. However, I can suggest these as measures through which we ensure that the voice of the youths are heard

Use of all social media platforms to seek an end to this evil

Daily protests coordinated across the country. We don’t back down, we won’t lose this fight

Have legal advisors available for defense

Look out for each other especially the women

Contribute to providing necessities for the protesters

Opinion leaders contribute their voice to the cause.

Not everyone can be at the warfront, but from your posts contribute your tweet, money and resource to this cause.

READ ALSO: Whopping N1.2 Trillion, That’s How Much they refused to remit!

One thing I think we need to understand is that if we can work together to ensure that our voice is heard this once, we are sure to be on a path to great national change where we know what we expect from the government and demand it. It is our right.

Let’s get this right and this will start a chain reaction that will sweep across all sectors of the country.