The leadership of the National Assembly has assured EndSARS protesters that their demands have been embraced by both the executive and legislative arms of the government and are being properly addressed, advising them to end the protests.
Speaking separately to newsmen today, October 18, after an audience with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, the NASS leadership agreed that this is a trying moment for the country and its leadership.
“As the National Assembly, we believe we have critical and crucial roles in ensuring that the current situation of protests across the country is brought to an end.”
The Senate President, Ahmed Lawal said: “I want to thank Mr President for exhibiting his very deep democratic credentials. The protests have gone on for over 10 days, probably today is the 11th day across many states of the country.
“I think the protesters have expressed their legitimate rights, the government has listened and the essence of coming to meet Mr President is to review the situation and see the roles the two arms of government should play in ensuring that the five-point demands of the protesters are properly addressed.
“Where legislative intervention will be required, we are ready to move in and deal with such expeditiously to ensure that we do not waste any time, so that we address the concerns of our youths.
“Where the executive role is expected, we are sure that the executive will also expedite action and we will be watching to ensure that such demands are properly met.
“It is also very critical at this point to mention this. Since the protests have taken place and the issues have been accepted, the time has come for the protests to stop because government needs to have sufficient time and conducive environment to implement the demands of the protesters.
“We also need to have our economy to continue to go on. When you try to stop people from engaging in their lawful activities, closing roads to markets and other economy places, such will distract the country’s economy and that is not the best way to go.
“If the issues have not been accepted, then there would have been genuine reasons to continue with the protests but since the issues have been accepted, we should give government time to implement the issues.
“Therefore, I am seizing this opportunity to appeal to our youths who are protesting that the protests have already yielded the desired results. First of all, they said ‘end SARS.’ That was the beginning and SARS was scrapped, not by the IGP. SARS was scrapped by the President himself. The President made a presidential statement. And that was the first time a President will say end SARS and SARS has ended.
“The other issues followed. They are being addressed, and that is why we are here. I believe that the time has come for these protests to come to an end and allow government to address the issues in a very short time.
“I also believe that Nigerians have legitimate rights to go about their lawful businesses without let or hindrance. We cannot have that when the roads are blocked. We do not want a situation that will lead to a degeneration of law and order because if somebody is blocked and he feels he must have his way.
“So, we will suggest that withdrawing from these protests at this time is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, give us the opportunity to deal with matters that we have agreed as a government to handle.”
Also speaking, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said: “I can assure you that there is no bigger democrat than Mr President. He gave us a listening ear, the same that he always gives Nigerians.
“He accepted absolutely everything that Nigerians asked for. I have heard the stories that we have heard end SARS like four times before. That is what people are saying.”
He asked the protesters to give the President and the government time to address their grievances, saying: “if you like, you begin your protests again if nothing happens in two weeks. But let us not continue this thing and lose the plot. That is what I don’t want.
“I don’t want our youths to lose the plot. They have done so well in terms of expressing their grievances and it is important we don’t get side-tracked.
“Of course, there are tangential issues that they have discussed after the EndSARS. We have spoken with Mr President and he is looking at everything.
“Some of these things are policy matters that are not going to happen overnight. You are not going to have electricity overnight; it is not going to happen tomorrow. Free road is not going to happen tomorrow.
“It is a process and the important thing is that the government has heard you loud and clear. It is a continuous engagement. We will be engaging our youths in matters of policy and communicate with Mr President as well on what needs to be done.
“So, again, let us not lose the plot, let us remain focused. Points have been made like never before in the history of Nigeria and that is kudos to the young men and women out there.
” As far as Osun State is concerned, it is unfortunate what happened to the state governor. This is where I said we are beginning to lose the plot. Osun state governor is loved by everybody in the state. He came to address people and that was what he got. At that point, we begin to wonder what exactly do we want? Is there an unseen hand? I don’t think there is an unseen hand. This is a movement. We should not allow people to infiltrate what otherwise is a good course.
“My advice is that even if there is trust deficiency, let us, for whatever it is worth, trust government for what it has done now. It has ended SARS, nobody can argue that. SARS is ended completely, never to be heard anybody. We talking about SWAT now.
“We interrogated the IGP about three days ago and we asked the question and he explained to us that in any security agency, particularly the police, if there is a special unit and you disband it, you don’t leave a vacuum. It is apparently a police code anywhere in the world that you don’t leave a vaccum, it has to be filled and that was why he came up with SWAT.
“Having come up with SWAT, the criteria, the engagement, the personnel, what they can do and what they cannot do. They are complete departure from what SARS was meant to operate.
“Let us remain focus and stay on track. Let us work with government. We are all on the same page. It is not you against us. We are all on one page and if we are on one page, we will get the desired result.”
Let me take us down memory lane. On October 20, 2011 Qaddafis regime came to an end as he was killed in Sirte, Libya. The people danced and celebrated his fall! An end to an oppression or so they thought.
President Muhammadu Buhari has authorized the dispatch of special teams to deliver urgently, needed assistance to 12 states that are most ravaged by the seasonal rains.
Thousands of youths under the cover of #EndSARS protest, have converted the ever-busy Benin-Lagos Expressway into a kitchen.
A female teacher with Concordia College, Jimeta, Yola, Adamawa State, Oluwabunmi Adani, has emerged the winner of this year’s Maltina Teacher of the Year (MTOY) award. She went away with N6.5 million.
After #EndSARS, No Government Will Ignore Nigerians Again, By Fredrick Nwabufo
The #EndSARS protests did not only end a ferocious unit of the police and constrained the capricious hands of the government into making pledges of initiating reforms in the force; it also galvanised Nigerians, particularly the young, across religions and ethnic groups to put the government to task. Government should be in the service of the people and not the other way around. Really, there is no mortar that can crush a people forged into a fist; when the people kill fear, the government becomes afraid.
#EndSARS could be the beginning of the end of all Nigeria’s maladies. Citizens – of all ages — have realised their voice counts. They have seen the government tremble in trepidation of a united assemblage of people. Just like Xerxes, the god-king, bled from the spear of King Leonidas, they have seen the very intransigent regime bleed. Nigerians have been unplugged from the matrix by a legion of young resistance. It may never be the same again. Power has returned to the people. The government should be afraid.
The youth have pointed us to a path out of darkness, state repression and oppression. They have given us hope in the possibility of a new country where possibilities are not impossible. They have seized the baton on the relay race to a contemporary Nigeria. It could be a dawn of new beginnings.
I have seen arguments on the need to be cautiously optimistic about the fruits of the recent agitation. Some say the old order of things could return as soon as the #EndSARS protests peter out. Well, I do not want to be cautiously optimistic. I am very optimistic about the far-reaching and indelible impact of this movement. It may never be the same. A new precedent has been set upon which other exemplars will follow.
I do not think there has been anything of this magnitude in our recent history. When any government becomes insouciant about the plight of citizens, the #EndSARS protest will be an aide-memoire – to remind that government of citizens’ wrath. No sane government will want to be on the testy side of the people.
Again, the protest could be the beginning of the end of all Nigeria’s maladies. Yes, I am pushing it. I know. From #EndSARS, the demand has dovetailed to #RECONSTRUCTNIGERIA and #ENDBADGOVERNANCE. #EndSARS was just the needed spark to stir a whirlpool of changes in the system.
Deji Adeyanju agrees. He told me SARS is only but a metaphor of the general societal malaise.
Hear him: ‘’You know SARS is a metaphor …SARS is just one end of all the societal ills….
It’s not really the main issue; yes it’s one of the issues, one of the challenges we’re having as a country and as a people, however, it has become the single, the common rallying point for every other thing we are passing through. So, as many of us have been saying. We have been praying for that thing that will create a spark. So, the EndSARS campaign is that spark that we have all been waiting for. That is my view. I believe that this is the spark; the right spark that we have been waiting for and we are extremely glad that it ignited.’’
Also, Aisha Yesufu, a passionate advocate of good governance, says #EndSARS can be a catalyst to the struggle for a better future for the country.
Here is what she told me: ‘’Like I stated a few days before, I said EndSARS can be the catalyst to fight for a better future and ensure the culture of bad governance, lack of accountability, lack of transparency is once and for all taken away. We are at a tipping point and I hope we are able to tilt towards the good part. What I think is that this government doesn’t understand that this protest is not like any other protest. This is a protest for survival. There has been a culture of silence over the years; over the decades, people have been in pain, people have been oppressed and suppressed; people have gone through so much pain and have kept it in, and now it’s bubbling to the surface.’’
‘’I think Nigerians have been pushed to the wall, most especially the Nigerian youths. They’re trying to fight back; they are not interested in discussing, and the more they are killed, the more they are coming out because they’re saying, ‘it’s better you kill us here in public and the whole world is seeing you kill us than the one where you’re killing and wasting us one after the other under the cover of darkness where nobody is seeing it and nobody can now talk’. and I think if we don’t handle this with care, especially if the government doesn’t handle this with care, when they think they will do what they normally do before which is to first of all intimidate people, harass them, send in police, send in the military, send in thugs, stop the protest and all of that, and think it will work? It’s most likely would not because this cause is different; they are fighting for a right to live and nothing else, and we need to understand that particular bit of it.’’
Really, Nigerians are on a fight for survival, and nothing else matters. By the time this night is over, I believe a dawn of healthy government-citizen relationship will set in. It is a fight to the finish. The government should fear the people.
Fredrick Nwabufo is a writer and journalist
Twitter @FredrickNwabufo