OPINION: The Spirit of October

By Sully Abu

A year ago, our benighted and long suffering country saw a rude awakening. A place where our today is almost always guaranteed to be worse than the day before enjoyed a brief moment of that commodity that appeared to have long taken leave of this land: hope.

What began as a campaign to draw attention to police brutality and especially the unspeakable atrocities of a particular unit that was designed to adopt a muscular approach to law enforcement soon turned to a spirited protest against the ills of society and their perceived perpetrators.

Thanks to the long familiar deaf and dumb approach to matters of governance, the revolt quickly became an insurrection. The rallying proclamation may have been ‘ EndSars!’ But that was a metaphor for an end to an ancien regime that has made a once bright and promising  country a land of no hope, a laughing stock not just in the wider world but also in Africa where we are held in derision even by our puny neighbours.

October 20 2020 marked the rejection of a state of affairs to which many had become resigned: a country which in spite of its rich endowments has simply and stubbornly refused to work and has become a place of no consequence when it comes to contributing anything positive to the world. Even when  it came to matters of negative concern – kidnapping particularly of school children, unremitting flow of blood, fraud and corruption – the evidence  is that the world had  begun to tire of Nigeria with other countries raising concern only when we appear to pose a clear and present danger to their own interests and citizens.

It was for these reasons and more that the EndSars protests struck such a chord not just in Nigeria but around the world with many international figures paying particular attention to the trajectory of events. Within the country, the boldness and imagination of the youth, their organisation, their patriotism, their all-embracing message including sympathy for the living and working conditions of policemen, put in bold relief the absolutely disgraceful state of the wider society and the utter, irredeemable bankruptcy of its so-called leaders, whether in situ or aspiring.

Even those who had given up hope that anything good would ever come out of Nigeria momentarily suspended their disbelief. And support for the protesters came from far and wide. Food, drinks, recharge cards appeared from no where. Perfect strangers became bonded by what seemed the sacredness of their common mission.

The sense of comradeship and camaraderie  especially when the mindless shooting began, with okada riders and motorists ferrying the injured and the fallen to nearby private hospitals and clinics which threw their emergency services open, was  the stuff of legend, evoking the spirit of shared humanity which the brutality of our daily existence had seemed to banish far from these shores.

Lagos was the epicenter of events but their remit was nation wide. The dimensions it took in many other places – looting of food stores and arson – became the narrative  those in authority chose to emphasize, providing the excuse for a bloody  crackdown. In the process they missed the point. What could have provided an occasion for a deep and agonising appraisal of where we are and why was merchandised as a protest with ethnic or regional motivation – or even a move to overthrow the government. One prominent figure who has since become a bandit- negotiator claimed ownership of the very man who is supposed to be president of the entire country, insisting they were going to rise in defence of “our Buhari”.

For the protesters, Buhari was theirs as well. As they wrapped themselves  in the national flag, the resplendent  colours of green- white – green and singing the national anthem  a number of them were captured on TV and social media saying all they wanted was for “President Buhari to address us.” We know how their plaintive  cries were met.

Like the opportunities for a national re-birth presented by June 12 and in a lesser respect the tenure of Gen Murtala Muhammed, the EndSars episode risks becoming another lost opportunity. Ever since that episode the degeneration in  nearly every aspect of national life  – from security of lives and persons to the Zimbabwenization of the economy and currency such that Nigeria today carries the can in nearly every index of human development  –  has been mind-boggling.

Yet there are people running all over the place saying they want to be president or governor in 2023. President of this wreckage? Governor of where? Is any of them thinking of the enormity of the task of fixing this place? Is anyone promoting a national conversation about saving us from an abyss above which we are barely hanging?

The consolation is that spirits, we are told, do not die. In spite of the brutality with which legitimate protesters of the national condition continue to be met, the wounded spirit of the EndSars protests will not be assuaged until Nigeria does a much needed, almost belated reckoning of what it is and what it wants to be.

Sully Abu, a journalist, writes from Lagos.