Beyond Police Brutality: Interrogating the Political, Economic and Social Undercurrents of the #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria

Abstract

On 20 October 2020, the military and police force opened fatal shootings at peaceful unarmed #EndSARS protesters. This article examines the political and socio-economic undercurrents of #EndSARS protest. It argues that the predatory state–society relations where the state is the predator and citizens are the preys nurtured the increasing distrust between the state and its citizens, and ultimately, resulted in the deepening mutual mistrust between the police and people. The article concludes that the #EndSARS protest created opportunity for the Nigerian state to accelerate and accumulate its bourgeoning repressive character instead of reducing it. It recommends symbiotic state–society relations.

‘It will never be well with SARS’: A discourse analytic study of the #EndSARS protests on social media

“…Established in 1992, SARS’ mission was to end car theft, armed robbery and kidnapping (Nnadozie, 2017). The NPF, especially SARS, has long been criticised for its corruption, extortion and suppression of separatist organisations such as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Aniche and Iwuoha, 2022). Before the 2020 #EndSARS protest, Nigerian youths had communicated their dissatisfaction with SARS in 2013, 2014 and 2017 (Alfred and Oyebola, 2021).…”

“…The protests were intense between late October and early November of 2020. The main demands by the protesters were the disbandment of SARS, punishment of those responsible for the deaths of youths, immediate release of all protesters who were in prison and an end to bad governance and corruption (Aniche and Iwuoha, 2022). On 20th October 2020, the climax of the protests, protesters went to the Lekki Tollgate waving the Nigerian flag only to be killed by the Nigerian Army (Ukpong, 2020).…”

“…There has been a bourgeoning number of studies on the protests. For instance, Aniche and Iwuoha (2022), in their study on the political, economic and social drivers of the #EndSARS protest, utilised the predatory state theory as the theoretical framework to analyse public hearings on police brutality in South East and South South states. They found that the political factors that led to the protest were the lack of trust between citizens and the government due to high levels of corruption and poor governance.…”

“…Social media has provided a platform for digital activism, as evidenced by the protests in Nigeria in October 2020, which demanded the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) (Uwalaka, 2022). Research on the #EndSARS protest aimed at highlighting the impact of the protest on people in the Niger Delta region (Okpalaeke and Aboh, 2022), the emotions exhibited before, during and after the protest (Eniayejuni, 2023), the political, economic and social factors that contributed to the protest (Aniche and Iwuoha, 2022), the legal issues surrounding the protest (Aidonojie et al, 2022; Richards and Eboibi, 2022) and the role of women during the protest (Nwakanma, 2022). These studies illustrate how social media helped mobilise and manage the protest and how protesters formed solidarity.…”

Examining the role of social media and mobile social networking applications in socio-political contestations in Nigeria

“…For example, the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria are yet to be adequately studied. Some studies (Aniche & Iwuoha, 2022; Dambo, Ersoy, Auwal, Olorunsola, Olonode, et al, 2022; Dambo, Ersoy, Auwal, Olorunsola, & Saydam, 2022; Nwabunnia, 2021; Uwalaka, 2021) have evaluated the hypothesis about the salience of online media during the 2020 #EndSARS protests. Although these studies are vital to understanding some aspects of the hypothesis, they, however, either looked at the spreadability of protest messages on twitter or used content analysis to ascertain meaning from tweets and Facebook posts or safety of journalists during the protests (Adeniyi, 2022; Chinweobo-Onuoha et al, 2022; Talabi, Nwokolo, et al, 2021).…”