Dialectics of ENDSARS
By Emeka Omeihe
A teacher, Yusuf Jimoh (not real names) was overheard in a discussion with some of his colleagues lamenting he has never in his life, witnessed the kind of things that happened during the ENDSARS protests. Asked whether that was the first time he was seeing organized protests in such a large scale, he said no.
Hear him: “I was privy to the prolonged June 12 nationwide protests in 1993 and the 2014 one following fuel price increase by the regime of President Jonathan. I am also aware that the #ENDSARS campaign started sometime around 2017 but could not gather momentum”.
For him, the last protests against the dreaded police unit came out with striking features creating impressions that will live with him for the rest of his life. Even as he regretted the deaths of both police officers and civilians, he could not imagine hoodlums or whatever name they are called could one day, take up arms and unleash mayhem of the magnitude inflicted on police formations across the country and loot COVID-19 palliatives in the manner witnessed.
That such deadly attacks could be launched against the police establishment resulting to deaths, serious injuries, burning and looting of their arms and ammunitions, were things really beyond his conjecture. He never imagined the reality of a foreboding situation where the police would suddenly become a common enemy to be subjected to selective onslaught. That was the uncanny predicament Jimoh found himself. And we saw how policemen disappeared from public view for a couple of weeks for fear of being attacked by the so-called hoodlums.
