”I am here to give evidence of our hospital encounter during the EndSARS protest period. We had a total number of 15 patients. We had four referrals from Vedic life Healthcare, seven referrals from Reddington hospial.

Mr Nicholas Okpe, a 43 year old man, who had gunshot injury to the chest. A chest tube was passed. Chest tubes are drains that were passed into the lungs to allow for air and blood to come out. Then he was later on transferred to LASUTH for further care.”

The doctor confirmed there were no casualties in his hospital claiming all patient were successfully treated and discharged.

The military who arrived at the scene later at night was accused of shooting at protesters, an allegation it continued to deny.The military says it only fired blank bullets.

However, an on-the-ground investigation by Amnesty International found that the Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters on Oct. 20 at two locations in Lagos. The rights group says the killings took place at Alausa and Lekki, both suburbs of Lagos.

How did #endSARS started?

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, or (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 on Twitter with #endSARS.

The #endSARS hashtag dates back to at least 2017, when it was used to share experiences of assault and violence. SARS was formed in 1984 to combat an increase in armed robbery and crime but has been widely accused of unlawful arrests and other abuses. Amnesty International reported at least 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and extra-judicial execution between January 2017 and May 2020. Despite promises of reform, Amnesty says SARS officers still act with impunity.

What happened at Lekki tollgate on Oct. 20?

Several videos circulating on social media showed crowds gathering at the Lekki toll gate in one of the suburbs of Lagos, where #endSARS protesters have been camped for two weeks. Witnesses told the BBC that uniformed men opened fire, and soldiers were seen barricading the protest site before the shooting, and Amnesty International received reports that shortly before the shootings, CCTV cameras at the Lekki toll gate were removed by government officials and the electricity was cut in an attempt to hide evidence. Video footage showed protesters singing the national anthem in the darkness, the noise gunfire as people ran away from the scene, and protesters tending to the injured at the scene. According to Amnesty International, at least 56 people have died across the country since the protests began, with about 38 killed in one day.

The government continued to deny reports of killings at the Lekki tollgate, insisting soldiers only fired rubber bullets to disperse protests.

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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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