Demonstrators, early Monday morning, also returned to Lekki toll gate in Lagos, the scene of the deadly shooting of protesters on October 20, 2020. What happened at Lekki Tollgate is still a topic of debate in the Nigerian media with the government insisting there were no casualties. CNN on its part claims to have evidence of casualties.

We’re serious and ready!!! Full video out soon share and retweet! #EndSARS pic.twitter.com/25mU9vezWT

— Olufemi Ae ….♈️🇳🇬 (@OlufemiAe) December 7, 2020

What is #endSARS?

Nationwide protests against police brutality began on Oct. 8, after a video emerged in early October showing police officers thought to be from the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) allegedly shooting and killing a young man in Nigeria’s southern Delta State. Although Nigerian authorities denied the reports, protests erupted across the country calling to disband the unit and #endSARS. Though they are leaderless, the demonstrations are mostly driven by young people who say they have been unfairly profiled by SARS.

On Oct. 11, the government announced the disbanding of SARS. This is the fourth time there has been an announcement of either the disbanding or reform of the force, but activists say the move does not go far enough. Protesters have five core demands, including justice for the families of victims of police brutality, retraining of SARS officers before they are redeployed to other police units, and an independent body to oversee investigations into police brutality. Protesters have also expanded their aims beyond police brutality to harness frustration at years of corruption and bad governance.

https://twitter.com/fountainKA25/status/1335864932655620097

This second round of protest appears not to be just about police brutality, but the general mishandling of the country’s affairs. Last week, Boko Haram killed 43 farmers working on a rice field in Borno. Nigerian universities have been closed down since March due to lecturers’ strikes.

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Since then a lot has transpired in a series of events that would come to be known globally as the #EndSARS protests.

Here are five lessons Nigerians can take away from the events of the past few weeks.

Social Media is king

What triggered the current round of protests against SARS was a video in which members of the now-dissolved police unit were seen shooting a civilian, and later driving away in his vehicle. The video was widely circulated on social media away from the censorship that would have hindered it on government-controlled television. What followed was hundreds of people sharing their personal experiences with police brutality. Social media put a face to police violence in Nigeria, actual victims telling their stories was just a matter of time before the streets erupted in protests.

Nigerian youths are more efficient

Imagine a movement without actual leaders, only thousands of Twitter tweets and Facebook posts telling people where and when to gather. For the first two weeks, before the protests were hijacked by hoodlums food, water, and medicine were delivered nationwide to protesters with an efficiency that puts the government’s distribution of Covid-19 palliatives to shame.

Tinubu’s presidential ambition in jeopardy

The events of the past few weeks have no doubt shattered the credibility and confidence that most Nigerians have in their public servants, but one individual that seems to have emerged worse off than others is political godfather Bola Tinubu. Before the protests, there were rumors that Tinubu was already laying the groundwork of his ambition to contest the presidency in the 2023 general elections. For now, he stands accused of complacency in the shooting deaths of protesters in Lekki on October 12.

Tinubu represents a metaphor for the old guard of Nigerian politicians, most of whom will find it difficult to win popular votes moving forward.

Buhari has been a bad boy!

Muhammadu Buhari became Nigeria’s president in 2015 after defeating the then incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan in the general elections. His campaign promises centered around social change improved security, improved economy, and less corruption. So far, Buhari has struggled to deliver significantly on these promises. The #EndSARS protests might have been triggered by police brutality, but it quickly turned into a protest for better governance with most Nigerians demanding a better standard of behavior from their president.

A popular revolution is impossible in Nigeria

For most people following the #EndSARS protests from outside Nigeria, the protests might seem like a popular uprising, but in reality, it wasn’t. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Lagos, Abuja, and several other cities in Southern parts of Nigeria to demand police reform and better governance, but others in the northern parts of the country saw things differently. In fact, at some point, pro-SARS rallies were said to have held in some northern cities. Nigeria is deeply divided along religious and ethnic lines, to some people the #EndSARS protests simply deepened that divide.

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