Protests and blood on the streets: repressive state, police brutality and #EndSARS protest in Nigeria

Abstract

This article investigates how the Nigerian state is implicated in police brutality and clampdown on the #EndSARS protesters and its implications for democracy, development and national security. The article used primary data comprising 38 telephone interviews, 19,609 Facebook posts/reposts and 24,799 Twitter tweets/retweets, complementing it with a wide range of secondary data. From the analyses of data, it shows there is an obvious mutual trust deficit between government and the citizens. This is supported by one-third of the 36 states in Nigeria which witnessed sporadic #EndSARS protests and destruction of government establishments. Use of heavy firearms against unarmed protesters escalated the conflict from civil disobedience to a demand to a change of government. Thus, establishment of institutional mechanisms and disciplinary measures that control the excesses of security agents during civil protests is imperative to protect civil and human rights of protesters.

Pandemic Policing and Community Engagement: Preparedness, Legitimacy and Public Support During the COVID-19 Crisis in Nigeria

“…Irrespectively of the source of orientation, there are considerable reports of systemic violence by officers of the Nigerian police meted out to citizens in the performance of their duties. These reports indicate that excessive and unwarranted force is often applied by officers while apprehending crime suspects ( Alemika, 2003 ), controlling crowds and riots ( Iwuoha & Anichie, 2021 ), enforcing movement restrictions ( Famosaya, 2020 ), and executing stop-and-search ( Adisa et al, 2018 ). Others include resorting to torture during investigations ( Aborisade & Obileye, 2017 ), and committing extrajudicial killings ( Amnesty International, 2020b ; Babatunde, 2017 ).…”

“…A tipping point of police illegitimacy in Nigeria was the viral video of police extrajudicial killing of a man by officers of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) ( Etim et al, 2022 ). This culminated in a nationwide protest against police brutality that defied movement restrictions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Iwuoha & Anichie, 2021 ) and further demonstrated deep distrust between the community and the police. Prior to the #EndSARS protests, low public compliance with police directives on COVID-19 rules has been widely reported, with the public appearing to challenge police legitimacy in restricting movement ( The Africa Report, 2020 ; The Guardian, 2020 ).…”

Mistrust of government within authoritarian states hindering user acceptance and adoption of digital IDs in Africa: The Nigerian context

“…The EndSars protest of October 2020 was a watershed moment in the history of Nigeria. For the first time, the nation's youths were unified in action to protest targeted violence by the security services and perceived poor governance by a ruling class which included few of their generation (Iwuoha and Aniche, 2021). Nigeria's population, like elsewhere in Africa, is very young.…”

“…Since its commencement in 2007, there had never been a significant public display of suspicion about the digital identity project, projected through social media. This changed following the EndSars protests of October 2020 in Nigeria (Iwuoha and Aniche, 2021), where youths across Nigeria protested the violence targeted at young people by Nigeria's Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and perceived poor standards of governance. As detailed in the following section, the NIN-SIM policy which shortly followed the EndSars protest heightened suspicion of encroachment on rights to privacy.…”

Policing the COVID-19 Outbreak, Accounts of Misconduct, and the Imperatives of Procedural Justice Training for Nigerian Police Officers

“…In an apparent vindication of the consistent reports of civil organizations and scholarly research reports, the strained relationship between the police and the Nigerian public led to nationwide protests against one of the units of the Nigeria police, known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), in early October of the year 2020 (Etim et al 2022). The protests against police brutality resulted in a call for disbanding the SARS unit, total reform of the police, accountability, and justice for those extra-judicially killed by police officers (Iwuoha and Anichie 2022). The protests which took place in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with protesters defying the COVID-19 protocols to engage in street protests across the country, suggest that pre-COVID police legitimacy may impact pandemic policing.…”