BEVERLY HILLS, October 25, (THEWILL) – The #EndSARS Protests is a reactionary movement of a new millennium age against their political leadership who alienated them.
This was made known on Sunday during a conversation on Classic FM 97.3. The discourse titled “Time to Rebuild Our Cities” featured the publisher of THEWILL, Austyn Ogannah and a Security Expert, Rtrd Capt. Umar Aliyu. It was a reflection on the recent protest against police brutality by Nigerian youths and its aftermath.
The #EndSARS protest was just a smokescreen of an already depressed Youth who feel abandoned by the political class. Unfortunately, “98% Nigerians including the’ hopeless politicians’ supported the protest. “The political class is completely disconnected from the people in a failed or nearly failed State”, Ogannah said.
On the management of the protest, the approaches adopted by the Government and the Security agents were faulty. According to Aliyu, “the failure to recognize the generational gap between those protesting and the government was a problem. The Youths who are technologically inclined were being tooled with an analog stereotype media approach.”
On the aspect of intelligence gathering, both Ogannah and Aliyu knocked the government and the security agents for failure to exploit cyberspace and the deployment of technology.
The Shooting incident at the Lekki Toll Gate on Tuesday also dominated the conversation. Although, the military had denied any involvement in the shooting, Aliyu, a retired captain, while confirming the deployment and shooting by soldiers; however called on the army to investigate who issued the order to deploy the military.
Reports of reported deaths of protesters emerged on Tuesday after soldiers invaded the Lekki Toll Gate. Ogannah who confirmed a good number of injured protesters said, “From facts, no massacre in Lekki. Yes, there were deaths during the protests but not in Lekki Toll Plaza from facts available. If we assume people were killed, even though they could be destitutes, no families, friends have come up till now?” he queried.
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The #EndSARS protest might have been contained physically on the streets, but the most dangerous phase of it now exists in cyberspace. This, according to Aliyu, is the problem our political leadership and the security agents must realize.
On the way forward to rebuilding our states, Aliyu, who condemned the use of brutal force on civil protesters, said the government must not fail to recognize the “generational shift of a youth who is more informed than the government itself.” He warned that urgent steps must be taken to address the system.
However, “dialogue, continuous engagement by the political class with the people, reparations to the wounded and dead as well as restructuring- state police among other reforms”, Ogannah said are needed to move Nigeria forward.
