I had considered skipping this week’s entry due to some personal commitments but a friend urged me to keep up with the newsletter so here we are.
On Monday, the Lagos State Judicial Panel on #EndSARS submitted its findings in a report that shed light on the events of Bloody Tuesday, October 20, 2020, and its aftermath.
The details of the report which were eventually leaked on social media are awash with evidence which some have described as a damning indictment on the military, law enforcement and ultimately the state. A friend of mine who finished digesting it said he shed a tear afterwards. You can find a link to the full report here.
The reactions garnered on Twitter following its release was a potpourri of emotions ranging from relief to anger. Relief for young Nigerians who at last had hard proof against deniers—not that they doubted anyway—that indeed the state perpetrated atrocities against its citizenry.
Then there was anger. Anger at the government, its sympathisers and the several others who attempted to gaslight Nigerians by referring to the shootings as a hoax. In no uncertain terms the report has confirmed the shootings at Lekki as nothing short of a massacre.
A few months after the protests, I was at a luncheon organised by my boss. It was a get together outside of the formal work setting where we were more relaxed and discussed issues outside of work.
We touched on different subjects including movies, cancel culture, the latest Twitter gossip among others.
For the most part I was consuming a huge slice of pizza along with sangria while also setting my eyes on some unknown South American cuisine. I only managed to chip in my thoughts when I was almost done clearing my plate.
With my stomach filled, and after having had a bit of time to gather my thoughts, I proceeded to ask a question at the table.
“What are your thoughts on the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests. Successful or not”?
The responses gathered were mixed. You see, the team had worked very hard to deliver the December issue of our journal: #EndSARS and the Makings of a Historical Movement. We had solicited essays from far and wide from authors and participants who experienced the events firsthand.
I had taken part in the protests myself and may very well have joined in the Lekki protest were it not for work commitments.
When Bloody Tuesday happened it took many of us myself included, a bit of time to process it. I watched, along with hundreds of thousands of others, the Instagram live video by DJ Switch and saw blood and gore unfold in real time.
The answers I got to my question are similar to the answers I still get today, more than one year on. For some, it was all for nought. The ultimate price had been paid for freedom and no one had been held to account.
It is instructive to note that the Lagos panel was not the only one set up. Others were set up in other states, two of which I recall were in Anambra and Ekiti. Conclusive findings from those panels are yet to be made public which may stall proceedings in the fight for justice for the victims of police brutality.
The Nigerian army's position still remains one of denial that it fired live bullets at protesters. Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff has recently gone on record to say that only a whitepaper from the report would confirm the ‘alleged incidents’.
The Nigerian army doubling down should come as no surprise, though the shift in tone suggests that they have run out of options to extricate themselves from their initial egregious lie.
A reminder here that a ‘forensic expert’ had declared before the panel that he was ‘99.9999 per cent sure that the bullets fired by the military were blank bullets.’ Efforts to discredit the protesters online and offline were in full swing from the get go. Right in our faces they spat, dishonouring us and the memories of the lives lost.
While the report remains silent on who gave the ultimate kill order—with the Lagos State government saying it would release a whitepaper on it in two weeks—it surely provides vindication and indeed it is a matter of credit to the panel that they were able to come to a definitive conclusion despite what must have been immense pressure from all quarters.
Vindication has now been achieved, next is closure for the families of the fallen—many who still remain unnamed—and then justice.
So returning to my question: has it all been for nought? I honestly don’t think so. Already the US through its mission in Nigeria has called on the Lagos State government and the federal government to address the issues the report raises. Same with the UK through its minister for Africa. Pressure is being applied and people will pay.
I understand there is every reason to be sceptical that it is all performative. Call it naïveté if you like yet I think that posterity will reflect well on us that our generation fought tyranny with the limited resources at its disposal and was able to elicit global response.
The real positive for me though is that this speaks to the larger power of what we can achieve as a collective when we refuse to cower. The government's use of brute force and its behemoth propaganda machine was geared towards engendering fear among us and bringing us into servitude but that plan has failed woefully.
They’ve thrown everything right at us: the Twitter ban, crypto ban, arrests, seizures, appeal to force, trumped up charges—everything. And none of it has stuck. In a comical sense we’ve become the Teflon Don.
Believe me when I say they’re out of ideas. They’re using the same dated tactics of repression against a generation that has continued to outfox them and this has unsettled them deeply.
There’s really one way we can truly get to them. You know it, I know it. Despite the oft-repeated mantra that our votes don't count, historical evidence suggests otherwise. Recent election results are a pointer to this. With the race for 2023 afoot it’s time to kick out the plague and stymie the corruption that has set in deep.
Any government that has demonstrated repeated disregard for the sanctity of human life has no business being in power as they have failed the litmus test upon which all elected governments derive legitimacy. I’ll probably get called out for being political in tone but the time for niceties has long elapsed.
It might not be apparent yet and may even appear counterintuitive but October 20, 2020 will go down in Nigeria’s history as a turning point as I vaticinate, for the better. We will tell stories of it, sing about it and write about it.
One half has already been written in blood. The other half will be etched, with ink.