EndSARs Protest and the Role of Social Media: Implication on Youth Development in Rivers State
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The primary aim of this study is to examine EndSars protest and the role of social media: implication on youth development in Rivers state. Specifically, the study seeks to:
- Find out how social media contributed to the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria.
- Examine the level of impact of Social media to Police Brutality awareness
- Ascertain if social media played a significant role in the reformation of police in Nigeria.
- Examine the impact of the End SARS protest on social media
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of EndSars protest
The End of SARS is a decentralized social movement and a series of mass protests against police brutality in Nigeria. The slogan calls for the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a notorious Nigerian police unit with a long history of abuse (Kingsley, 2017).
Within a few days of renewed protests, on 11 October 2020, the Nigerian Police Force announced that it was dissolving the unit with immediate effect. The move was widely received as a triumph of the demonstrations. However, it was noted in many quarters that similar announcements had been made in recent years to pacify the public without the unit actually being disbanded, and that the government had merely planned to reassign and review SARS officers to medical centres rather than disband the unit entirely (Ademoroti, 2020). Protests have continued accordingly, and the Nigerian government has maintained a pattern of violent repression including the killing of demonstrators. There have been international demonstrations in solidarity with those happening in the country, and the movement has also grown increasingly critical of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government response to the protests (Makinde, 2020).
Figure 1: #EndSARS protest placard showing peaceful protest
Source: Kazeem (2020)
SARS officers have been alleged to profile young Nigerians, mostly males, based on fashion choices, possession of iPhones, tattoos and hairstyles. They were also known to mount illegal road blocks, conduct unwarranted checks and searches, arrest and detain without warrant or trial, rape women, and extort young male Nigerians for driving exotic vehicles and using laptops and iPhones. Nigerians have shared both stories and video evidence of how officers of SARS engaged in kidnapping, murder, theft, rape, torture, unlawful arrests, humiliation, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings and extortion of Nigerian citizens. A large section of the victims of the abuses of SARS have been young male Nigerians (Paquette, 2020).
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was a branch of the Nigeria Police Force under the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
Wright et al., (2016) described research design as “the overall strategy for conducting research that defines a concise and logical plan to address established research questions through the collection, interpretation, analysis, and discussion of data”. The common types of research methods are Survey, Experimental, Interviews and Observation. Generally, the problem to be investigated, the objectives and the focus of the study determine the type or combination of research method to be adopted. Depending on the objective of research and associated problems of research one may need to use one or a mixture of two or more methodologies called Triangulation method of Research. The research used two research methods: (i) Quantitative research approach, the survey was conducted through Google forms; the link was shared with mostly Nigerian youths for us to be able to know the level of their involvement and view on the impact of Social Media on the police Brutality Awareness, as they are the catalyst behind the awareness creation and also the victims of the Brutality by Nigerian Police. (ii) Cross sectional survey method.
Population and sampling of the study
The population of the study is the total number of individuals from whom the study data was gathered in the study area (Adèr et al. 2018). The target population for this study comprised residents of Rivers state. The convenience sampling technique was used, the study also employed. The researcher sent links of the research questionnaire to residents of River state as Google form, through links. After the exercise, 200 people had participated. Therefore, the sample size was exactly 200.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Discussion of Findings
The following findings were obtained from the analysis of the data presented above:
- The study shows that majority of the respondents (95.4%) agreed that Social media is a very useful tool that really helped in the Police Brutality awareness. While 69.7% of the respondents agreed that the awareness had swift response from the Government due to the involvement of Social Media, and 67.3% of the respondents agreed that its social media that made the international bodies and the world in general to know of the Brutality, Torture and Abuses Nigerians are facing from the hand of their Police Force
- The study shows that majority of the respondents (95.4%) agreed that Social media is a very useful tool that really helped in the Police Brutality awareness. While 69.7% of the respondents agreed that the awareness had swift response from the Government due to the involvement of Social Media, and 67.3% of the respondents agreed that its social media that made the international bodies and the world in general to know of the Brutality, Torture and Abuses Nigerians are facing from the hand of their Police Force. Larger number of Nigerians took part in the campaign against police brutality, where majority of the respondents (60.1%) used Twitter as the Social Networking site for creating
Discussion of Findings
The following findings were obtained from the analysis of the data presented above: awareness. Twitter is also the social networking site that the respondents agreed (73%) to really help during the online awareness as the hastags really trended everyday with millions of likes, retweets, and impressions.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
Though Social media has some negative impacts on young ones and the society, however, findings have shown that it still has numerous positive impacts, one of the positive impacts was how it really helped during Police Brutality Awareness in Nigeria, as the youths used the Social Networking Sites to express their needs and grievances as they campaigned against the Brutality, Torture and Abuses they face from the police. Social media is not only used for chat, watching Movies or catch cruise, it can be used for communication with the government and the world at large, which the Nigerian youth did during their campaign against Police Brutality. Also, twitter was seen to be a very useful social Networking sites that can be employ for online situational awareness tool.
Implication of findings
The anti-police brutality protests in Nigeria created a powerful movement that appeared to shake those in power. A potent mix of street protests and social media has given young Nigerians a voice that has shattered the country’s culture of deference. As the #EndSARS hashtag went viral, so did a defiance of the elite in Nigeria. The trashing of the palace of the highly respected Oba, or traditional ruler, of Lagos was symbolic of this mood. The youths dragged his throne around, looted his possessions and swam in his pool. This tumultuous fortnight and particularly the shooting of protesters in Lagos on 20 October will be remembered in Nigeria for a long time.
Those in power are clearly worried that the country’s huge young population can no longer be ignored, or, failing that, cajoled.
It is getting organised as evidenced by the huge donations received by a relatively unknown group – the Feminist Coalition – that rallied support for the protests and shook the foundations of Nigeria.
The fact that these young women said they would regroup makes the elite jittery and clearly indicates that the system needs to work for all and not for the privileged few.
From this episode, Nigerian politics has changed forever because the youths have realised how powerful they are and what they can achieve when they unite for a common goal.
Recommendations
The #EndSARs peaceful protest has come and gone as it has been called off by its promoters. In the protest, there were clear challenges and threats leading to adversity. But in every adversity, there is a silver lining of lessons and opportunities unleashed, which if carefully identified and tapped will lead to a more prosperous future while guaranteeing that the labour of our heroes’ past and present will never be in vain. The following are the recommendations of the study:
- Just as job skills are honed, Nigerian youths need to invest in knowledge of politics and governance; this will help create a niche in political decision-making.
- We can make right Nigeria’s past wrongs in transparency and accountability with a little integrity;
- Beyond the EndSARS movement, young people ought to channel skills, energy and resources to fight for good governance;
- A new Nigeria will be born when she supports her young people to be leaders;
- Youths need not only strive to be leaders of tomorrow, but today;
- The youths should see social media as a means to let their voices heard and support the right things, rather than using social media to spread fake news.
- A date should be set aside to mourn the death of Nigerians citizens that were murdered at Lekki Tollgate on 20th of October, 2020 by the Nigerian government;
- The Nigerian Police should focus on protecting their citizens rather than brutalizing them unlawfully;
- The Government, Leaders and Nigerian Police Force should respect the Nigerian Human Rights.
REFERENCES
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- Adebayo, B. (2020) “How a social media movement against police brutality prompted Nigerian government to act”. CNN. CNN. CNN. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
- Ademoroti, N. (2020). “What It Means When the Police Say They are Dissolving SARS”. BellaNaija. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- Adewole, K. (2020). “SARS reform is the best alternative to #EndSARS”. Nigeria: The Cable.
- Amnesty International (2014) Welcome to Hell Fire: Torture and Other Ill Treatment in Nigeria. London: Amnesty International Limited.
- Bridges, A. (2020). “Q&A: Founder of Black Lives Matter in Canada explains the call to defund police”. CBC. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
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