#EndSARS at five and the #FreeNnamdiKanu protest

 

Monday, October 20, 2025 was the fifth anniversary of the #EndSARS protest that claimed scores of lives and humongous public and private assets.  In my column of October 28, 2020, I had observed that “The #EndSARS protests and their unsavoury aftermath are pointers to the trust deficit in government. When the protests began, they started off on the social media and escalated to street protests. Though the federal and state governments acted fast to calm frayed nerves by quickly acceding to the five initial requests of the #EndSARS protesters, the youths who participated in that epochal protests were not mollified because despite previous assurances, government had done little or nothing to assuage their fears and meet their demands. For example, they claimed that the dreaded SARS had been previously disbanded in 2017, 2018 and 2019 yet they continued to operate with impunity. Who then is fooling whom? As the saying goes, “if a man deceives me once, shame on him, if twice, shame on me”. The reason being that, “once bitten, twice shy”.

Giving a timeline of events that led to the protests, Amnesty International in its February 8, 2021 report said “On 4 October 2020, a video went viral showing SARS officers dragging two men from a hotel and shooting one of them outside. A few days later, protests erupted across Nigeria. On 11 October, SARS is disbanded. But it was the 5th time since 2015 that the Nigerian authorities pledged to reform the police and disband SARS. Protests continued demanding more than empty promises. On 20 October, the Nigerian army violently repressed a peaceful protest at the Lekki toll gate, shooting at the protesters and killing at least 12 people. Since that day, the Nigerian authorities have tried to cover up the events of the Lekki Toll Gate Shooting. They froze protests leaders’ bank accounts and fined news agencies who diffused videos of the shooting.”

In the course of the protests, I went on an official assignment to Enugu. A German Foundation, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in collaboration with National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies had organised a capacity building training for South East and South-South geo-political zones state legislative assemblies. The training was being conducted in batches of two days each, I was one of the hired trainers. It remained one state assembly for us to finish when news filtered that #EndSARS protesters have mobilised to the vicinity of the venue of the workshop which was Nike Lake Resort. Meanwhile flights to Enugu Airport had been suspended and as such we were boxed in. Road travel to Abuja was impossible as news has it that there were protests in Kogi State and even Federal Capital Territory. Thankfully the hotel management beefed up security but we had to stay three days extra in trepidation before there was flight resumption and we safely made it back to base. On our way to the Enugu Airport we saw the vandalism of many banks, street lights and few other public infrastructures.

According to Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre newsletter “Legist” of September 30, 2022, “The independent investigative panel in Abuja set up to look into cases of human rights violations by the Police, following the #EndSARS protest in October 2020, submitted its report to the National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday, September 27, 2022. The panel received 295 petitions from 29 States and the FCT, on several issues, including threat to life, abuse of office, non-payment of judgment sums, unlawful arrest and detention, among others. Out of the 295 petitions, there were 64 cases of extra-judicial killings and 7 cases of enforced disappearance. The panel heard and decided on 95 petitions; 54 were struck out for lack of diligent prosecution by the petitioners and 57 were referred to the NHRC for further investigations. However, 54 petitions were withdrawn by complainants for several reasons, including allegations of intimidation by the Police, while some others resigned to fate.”

Last Monday, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the #EndSARS protests, Activist Omoyele Sowore led scores of his supporters to demand for the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The protests with the hashtag #FreeNamdiKanuNow was held in Abuja and some states in the South East region. Meanwhile, the police authority had last Friday obtained court injunction to prevent the protest from taking place in and around the Three Arms Zone along Shehu Shagari Way, Abuja. News report has it that the protesters tried to breach the police barricade around the vicinity of the area and were dispersed with teargas. According to the Force Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, about eight people including Nnamdi Kanu’s younger brother and one lawyer were arrested.

I have been on several media stations to discuss the protest. Some of them include Nigeria Info 99.3 FM, Lagos, Citizens 93.7 FM Abuja, News Central Television and Daily Trust newspaper.  I am of the considered view that there should be political solution to the IPOB agitation and that Nnamdi Kanu should be released. According to Albert Camus “Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.” Yes, it’s true that IPOB has been proscribed. However, something gave birth to the separatist agitation. Remember that before IPOB, there was the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra led by was Chief Ralph Uwazuruike. These organisations – MASSOB and IPOB – were formed as a pressure group against the continued discrimination against and marginalisation of the Igbo. Sincerely, aftermath of the 1967 – 1970 fratricidal civil war, Igbos have not been forgiven by Nigeria’s powerful political elite for wanting out of Nigeria.

Igbos are not the only ethnic group that have wanted to leave Nigeria, recall the agitation of the Oodua Peoples Congress and more recently, Yoruba Nation Agitators. They also were calling for Oduduwa Republic.  The leader of the militia Oodua People's Congress, Ganiyu Adams, was declared wanted by the then Inspector General of Police Musiliu Smith in 2000 with a financial reward of N100,000 for his group's involvement in violent clashes.  He was ultimately arrested on 22 August 2001, but was later released after being held in prisons in Lagos, Abeokuta and Abuja. Adams was arrested in Lagos, months after he was declared wanted following ethnic violence in 1999. He was arraigned on numerous charges including treason, murder, arson, and destruction of public property. On October 14, 2017, Adams was appointed the 15th Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland by late Oba Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo. I brought this to fore to underscore the fact that what Nnamdi Kanu was being tried in court for had been done previously by a Yoruba man and his case was resolved politically.

We shouldn’t also forget that the Niger Delta militants under different groups such as Niger Delta Avengers, Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, and the Egbesu Boys have all previously held the country by the jugular – killing, maiming and destroying oil and gas pipelines. Yet, in 2009, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua  granted the militants amnesty which they are still enjoying till today. Operation Safe Corridor is being used by the Nigerian Army in North East to deradicalise and rehabilitate Boko Haram insurgents who have previously killed and maimed. At present, Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina states have rolled out amnesty programmes for ‘repentant bandits’. So, what has Kanu done that these other groups and persons did not do for which he should be hanged or kept eternally behind bars? What is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. What the Igbos want is socio-political inclusion in the governance of Nigeria. There’s nothing wrong if the kind of elite consensus that made Yoruba to produce the president in 1999 is extended to the Igbo in 2027 or 2031.

I.G @jideojong