History will always try to cite the exact trigger moment of every resistance. In the case of 2020’s #ENDSARS protests, history will point to a horrific tragedy on the streets of Ughelli, a town in Delta State, that sparked one of the largest resistances witnessed across Nigeria in our lifetimes. The journey is well documented on Twitter. On the 3rd October 2020, @AfricaOfficial2 tweeted that SARS had just shot a young boy and stolen his car. Within an hour, @Sars_Watch twitter account that monitors SARS activities across Nigeria also tweeted about the young man in Ughelli – this time adding the hashtag #ENDSARS. Young people were outraged; videos of the incident went viral and the hashtag #ENDSARS started to trend immediately. The next day, popular musician Runtown asked his Twitter followers to walk with him as he protested in support of #ENDSARS in Lagos on Thursday 8th October.
THURSDAY IS THURSDAY !!
— Runtown (@iRuntown) October 6, 2020
Just over a week and a collection of #ENDSARS hashtags later, we are witnessing history unfold. For many this will not come as a surprise – young Nigerians have long rejected traditional forms of politics because quite frankly, there is no evidence that they have ever worked. Social media on the other hand has proven to spark revolutions at the click of one blue button.
This isn’t the first time that social media has been used to coordinate a Nigerian protest. In 2012, protestors took to the streets following a New Year’s Day announcement by the then President, Goodluck Jonathan that the fuel subsidy would be removed and the price of PMS would more than double overnight. For 12 days, Nigerians took to the streets in protest. Social media was used to organise, communicate among protestors and educate the wider population. Unsurprisingly, mainstream media were too afraid to represent the truth of the protests because ‘stay on the government’s good side’, contracts etc. This also isn’t the first time Nigeria’s SARS have been a social media trending topic. The #ENDSARS hashtag first made Twitter’s trending board in 2017 when footage of SARS officers killing a man emerged online. At the time, the demands were the same but the method of protest was smaller. A petition was submitted to the Nigerian National House of Assembly and signed by over 10,000 Nigerians calling for the end of SARS. Smaller (still significant) groups were on the streets in Ibadan, Warri, Lagos and a slightly bizarre protest and counter-protest in Rivers State.
But there is something VERY different about 2020’s #ENDSARS protests.
I still didn’t understand how quickly things would ramp up in the later hours of the 8th. The initial protests had largely been a peaceful success. However, images circulated on Twitter of a young womxn who had been shot in the face by the police. It was found out quite soon after that the womxn was a victim of domestic violence by her policeman partner. By the time this clarification was made, online followers of #ENDSARS were already paying closer attention to what was going on outside the Lagos State House of Assembly. Reports from the group of protestors started to come in under the #ENDSARS banner; there was a video of @SavvyRinu, her voice hoarse from the day’s protests, explaining to the Speaker of the House that the intimidation tactics of the police were quite simply out of line. There was the image of the comedian @MrMacaronii clearly exhausted but standing, sending out tweets to keep the people updated through the night. And at 6:13 am, he shared a single photo of a small group of 24 protestors who had slept outside the State House of Assembly with their fists up.
What is distinctly remarkable about the 2020 #ENDSARS protests is the way Twitter facilitated the rapid mobilisation of coordinated efforts to sustain protests all over Nigeria. At 01:33 am on the 9th, @FKAbudu tweeted that a lady called @mosopemi intended to make breakfast for 50 of the protestors who had slept overnight in Alausa. The required N50,000 had been raised within 5 minutes. 7 minutes later, it was N200,000 and at 11:32 am, FK announced that they had raised 1.3M Naira. By that point, they realised these rapidly growing protests would need cash to keep things going.
So @Mosopemi is making breakfast for the 50 or so protesters who are going to be in Alausa overnight. It’s a small gesture, but if you’d like to help, please donate or volunteer to serve them. The cost will be 40 – 50k and you can donate to: 0120009843 GTB Mosopefoluwa Odeseye
— FK. (@fkabudu) October 9, 2020
Groups like @feminist_co quickly became distribution hubs for funds across Nigeria. They’re financing protests in over 20 states from Lagos to Akwa Ibom to Kano. Funds for food, equipment, private security, water, ambulances and bail have been shared. The girls have EVERYTHING covered. In around 48 hours, a system was born that has somehow managed to simultaneously form a logistics team, a rapid response team which has got protestors urgent medical care or out of jail and even supply vegetarian meals (because this is a protest for everyone). In 7 days, they raised over 37 million naira which they are accounting for everyday through a short series of tweets to their followers. Twitter has allowed everyday skilled people to achieve in a matter of hours, efforts that have been seen to take bloated committees months to arrange. On 11th October, @Mochievous had put out a registration form for lawyers to volunteer their services for bailing arrested protestors. On the 12th October, less than 24 hours later, she shared an image of a Zoom call with 100 lawyers who had registered to receive training on how to get arrested protestors released. Visible in this picture, is the name ‘Femi Falana SAN’.
It’s surprising everyone, including the Nigerian government, that there is no leader. Why should there be? We have learnt from our history that ‘leaders’ are easy to compromise. Integrity and a commitment to the cause is often traded for a seat at the table or in most cases, on a private jet. Today’s #ENDSARS protests can be accessed by everyone. You do not need to be qualified as anything other than a citizen of Nigeria who wishes to exercise their constitutional right to protest. Arit Okpo encapsulates it perfectly in this tweet; “How beautiful to see a movement that everyone has access to. That someone can decide to start a protest in their community, can request and receive logistics support, request and receive medical and legal support and publicity – immediately.”. It is a moment that has been created for the people, by the people.
Social media enabling the end of SARS is almost poetic. As more people started accessing mobile devices such as smartphones and laptops to do their everyday jobs, SARS decided that anyone with a laptop is a ‘Yahoo Boy’ and is therefore sentenced to death, unlawful imprisonment or in the best case scenario, a light extortion of funds that range anywhere from the tens to hundreds of thousands of naira. Young people have had to delete banking apps and hide text message alerts to prevent SARS from accessing everything they own. This week, a young womxn shared the story of her new job handing her an official letter alongside her company laptop that could one day end up saving her life.
Young people should be able to exercise their constitutional rights. Why are fundraising efforts to protect the lives & welfare of the Nigerian youth being blocked? #EndSARS (1) pic.twitter.com/ry7NLNr6lQ
— feministcoalition (@feminist_co) October 16, 2020
At the same time, social media has given people an avenue to share their stories of police brutality that traditional media does not. We have read about young men and women who were picked up by SARS and their families are still looking for them over a decade later. We have heard of people who have been left with life-changing injuries such as blindness or paralysis. And even in the weeks before the protests, popular founder of The Plug NG Bizzle Osikoya had tweeted about his terrifying experience with SARS on September 26th to his 275k+ followers. You won’t be surprised by the number of “f*ck SARS” tweets that are shared in the early hours of the morning after young people have finished exercising their constitutional right to faaji and would just like to get home in one piece.
A moment reliant on social media does however have its drawbacks – Twitter was never really designed to facilitate a revolution. On October 12th, popular Nigerian Twitter accounts from people like Ozzy Etomi and Kiki Mordi complained about being ‘shadow banned’. When key Twitter users were trying to share helpful information, Twitter algorithms flagged them as spam as accounts that use multiple hashtags in their tweets are often bots. We’ve also seen people create fake accounts impersonating the larger Twitter personalities that have been at the forefront of the movement. Luckily, Twitter did a mini-verification spree so these fake accounts are easier to spot, thanks Jack!
What we see unfolding on both our physical and virtual streets is nothing short of revolutionary. This Digital Month, I ask that you stay plugged into #ENDSARS and be conscious about the content that you share. Open a Twitter account to retweet and tag #ENDSARS until our timelines are full of the little green icons. Share images from the protests on your Instagram stories. Tell the world that #SARSMUSTEND on Facebook. Make up something inspiring for LinkedIn (they love that there). And encourage your Whatsapp aunties and uncles to donate to the cause and sọ̀rọ̀ sókè, we need everyone. In a movement that we all have access to, we must all play our part. #ENDSARS.
(And #ENDSWAT too, it doesn’t make any sense.)
