#Endsars movement, anarchy, and Nigerian youths

It was birthed. Like a bolt from the blue, it held our nation in the jugular.

They began by occupying government secretariat in Lagos. Days later, the #Endsars movement spread to other parts of the nation. They began by demanding for reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the demands soon became elasticized- it became “Endgovernment. “This is a revolution”, a colleague pontificated on our academic platform. I countered by saying “…driven by who?”. “Revolutions needs no drivers”, he shot back at me. Then I said: “then that is anarchy’. Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is sceptical of authority and rejects all involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy. It believes in the abolition of the state which it holds to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful. Anarchists desire the end of government and all its institutions. A return to the life in the wild is usually the ultimate. In the latter, you either eat or you are eaten.

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I thought that was what we have witnessed during the past one week when those who had embarked on peaceful protests against police brutality lost the ace to those with deep hatred for the Nigerian nation. Thus, major roads in the Southwest were occupied. Innocent Nigerians were harassed and brutalized. Women were gang-rapped. The Governor of Osun state who had sought to identify with the protesters in Osogbo was lucky to escape with his life when his convoy was viciously attacked by hoodlums- or as one report claimed, assassins- who sought to snuff life out of His Excellency. The shopping mall in the city was subsequently attacked and looted. “Nigerian youths” helped themselves to new handphones and other luxury items that their greed could not afford. #Endsars movement became open invitation to disorder and hara-kiri.

Here in Abuja, a group of protesters marched towards or rather against Aso rock. Prodded by those with primordial animosity against the person and the personage of President Muhammad Buhari, the protesters began to demand for the end of government. They blockaded the airport road; they sought to ‘occupy’ the Central Bank. #Endsars became EndBuhari; it became Endeverything. We entered into the dawn of anarchism. While the small and genuine minority of #Endsars movement wanted true change in the way the police force is run in the country, a larger majority youths preferred something else- they wanted to disembowel the fabrics of our nation; they desired a change, but one that would not conform with democratic norms; they desired a revolution that is rudderless like an envelop without an address.

Thus, the “#Endsars protesters lost the command of the movement which they could not have controlled anyway. “Burn it down, burn the nation down”! they chorused. And it was burnt down. Police stations were burnt down in Lagos. A general hospital was burnt down in Edo. Police officers who were unlucky to be caught by hoodlums who had had cause to suffer from police ill-treatment had a field day in Ibadan- a police man was killed and burnt at Ojoo, in Ibadan North Local government. Innocent Nigerians who needed the support of government in time of distress found no succour. The #Endsars that started as an ace soon became a menace. It started as a movement with noble mission; but it was hijacked by elements with ignoble intention. It was a movement that blossomed under democracy, but it became one that sought to abort democratic institutions that gave it validity and legality.

“Burn Lagos down!”, the anarchists chorused and the call was answered with gusto and automatic alacrity. Lagos is presently being burnt down by Lagosians and others who are not Lagosians. Non-indigenes of Lagos who came from cities that are presently calm and quiet. But exactly who owns Lagos that is being destroyed? Is it the police force? Lagos belongs to Lagosians. The youths own Lagos. It is only they who can turn it round when they come together in peace and harmony while following democratic norms.

Let our youths seize this moment and judiciously too. Let them launch a political party that will be strictly for those who are less than forty years old. Let them contest for the Presidency in 2023 and other elective posts in the country. The bird is firmly in their hands!