Nigeria End Sars Protests October 2020 - Everything you need to know

Protesters at the End Sars rally

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns in Nigeria, rising violence against women reached a crisis point, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency on the issue by the Nigerian governors’ forum, which also promised to set up a sex offenders registry, according to local news agencies. The move came after days of marches in which protesters “defied the lockdown restrictions to voice their anger over the recent wave of rape and murder of women and girls in the country.”

Protesters holding the nIgerian flag

Those marches may were a sign of what was to come: further protests in October, this time over police brutality and in particular - the high-level military unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)and hence, the protest was tagged #ENDSARS. “During the first two weeks after lockdown began on March 30, 18 people were killed extra judicially by the police, according to the National Human Rights Commission, reported claimed. These reports further stated, is not a new phenomenon. Nigerian police have a notorious record of human rights abuses, brutality, and even extrajudicial killings for the slightest of offenses, such as refusing to give bribes, holding an expensive phone, or driving a fancy car. In fact, reports of police brutality are so common across Nigeria that they’re not meaningfully tracked locals claim.

Until that point, police killings were typically followed by “fancy hashtag activism for justice” that trends for some days. A moment later, everything returns to normal, and life continues. There are no street protests demanding justice or the prosecution of the killers. The police and other security actors such as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit carry on as before. Hashtag activism is no answer.

 In late October, though, hashtags turned to marches—which were quelled after the shootings and killings on October 20, 2020 of at least 12 demonstrators by the Nigerian military. But President Buhari of Nigeria failed to mention those deaths in his remarks, instead warning government critics against “undermining national security.”

Buhari, who was a military dictator in the 1980s, was elected president in 2015 and since the vote, the news out of Nigeria has been a mix of good and bad. In mid-2019, the country—one of the last three in the world with endemic polio—declared itself polio-free.

The same year, Buhari declared the defeat of the insurgent Islamist group Boko Haram, although its attacks have continued.

Meanwhile, Nigeria is still deeply divided …marginalization, unequal political appointments, south versus north, ethnic and religious tensions are still brewing division. Majority of the population is poor.

 Insecurity still remains one of Nigeria’s biggest challenges.  Across the country, millions of Christians who live mostly n the southern part of the country are living in fear because of the growing attacks by armed men or Fulani cattle herders. The “herders are Muslims who make regular journeys with their cattle to pastures down south—an area mostly dominated by Christians. The raids are increasing the chances of major religious conflict.