June 4 1989, the Chinese military with orders from the Chinese Communist government opened fire on thousands of protesters—mostly university students - gathered at Tiananmen square. Hundreds if not thousands of young people lost their lives that fatal day.
Forward 32 years later—a similar tragedy was to befall another set of young people mostly university students, gathered in protests and waving their country’s flag with the misguided notion that the soldiers facing them would not dare open fire on them for respect of the flag of patriotism they waved in their hands and draped around their bodies.
They chanted in solidarity, forming chains with their bodies, even beckoning on the military and police, addressing them as comrades with similar struggles and goals in demanding a better life, demanding equity, demanding the dividends of democracy and good governance from their government, demanding the right to be treated as humans with dignity, but their overtures were rebuffed by the mean-spirited killing machines bent on carrying out the instructions of their political overlords.
Reality dawned on the hopeful protesters when the hail of bullets cut through their young bodies packed tightly together in protest. Despite the assault, their spirits did not falter and they did not disperse as intended by their assailants. This was the tragedy of October 20th 2020 in the city of Lagos Nigeria at the prestigious Lekki toll gates. Young bodies paid the ultimate sacrifice for daring to ask the government for their rights.
The events of the Lekki massacre were precipitated by events not so dissimilar to what had caused the Tiananmen square riots and the Nigerian government like diligent students took a page out of the Chinese notebook and executed it with precision.
It baffles me that the Nigerian government—which is supposed to be a democracy—has a weird admiration for the Chinese Communist regime, government officials never miss an opportunity to pour a libation on and make reference to the Chinese government as though it were the gold standard for good governance.
For once, the youths had had enough of the excesses of the police against young men amongst other grievances and so using the power of social media, organized themselves in protest. The level of organization and efficiency was such that it would put “German efficiency” to shame. The protests were peaceful, there was free food for all participants, medical units were set up to assist in cases of health emergencies and the protesters swiftly ejected any person displaying unruly behaviour, the youths were determined to ensure the peaceful protest did not turn into a riot.
In these protests, Nigerians of all classes, ethnicity, religion and gender banded together, put a united front and spoke with one patriotic voice. A loud cry, a cry for the change that the government had so treacherously promised them only a few years back. Yet the only change that seemed to be happening was moving the country off a cliff at the speed of light.
Nepotism and corruption reigned supreme, intimidation, unemployment and inflation, kidnappings, robberies and banditry ruled the high ways, yet the head of government wouldn’t give a care in the world.
The children knowing the dreadful present and future that awaited them rallied together to tell the government their pains if perhaps they did not know the reality of the everyday Nigerian.
Satellite protests in the manner just described were held in all major cities of the country, but it was that held in the commercial capital of the nation that would turn out to be the flashpoint of the tragedy that marked the EndSARS protests. A protest against the vanity of a police unit SARS short for special anti-robbery squad, which had evolved to have a particular taste for victimizing young men. Leaving their core function of combating armed robberies, they preyed on young men indiscriminately accusing them of being cybercriminals.
The cause of the events of October 20 draws parallel to the events that caused the black lives matter protests in the US—police brutality, it seemed from America to Nigeria young black bodies kept falling at the hands of policemen, yet the responses to both protests were at opposites, while the US government restrained from using lethal force even when there were cases of rioting and looting, the Nigerian government decided to intervene in a peaceful demonstration Gestapo style.
After the massacre, the government did a thorough job of cleaning after itself as it proceeded to seize the corpses of those murdered and destroy any evidence of the act, but for the presence of individual smartphone cameras streaming to the internet, the world would never have known such an atrocity ever occurred.
When accountability for the massacre was demanded, the military denied and deflected, first stating that they were never at the scene, then updating that they were there but never opened fire, and when that ungodly lie caught up, they revised their statements to say, they opened fire, but not with live ammunition, just blanks.
Are we supposed to believe that the bloody sights captured and circulating on social media was caused by blank bullets?
The government from the federal to the state level denied any involvement in the shooting. “Mock” investigative panels rigged to fail and not turn up anything useful were theatrically set up by the government to investigate the incident of October 20th and just as they were designed, they have failed to produce a single indictment of the government and its military thugs.
It’s been a year down the line, and yet there has been no reckoning, no justice for the champions of democracy who were brutally murdered by a government sworn to protect them. The irony of that is not lost on the Nigerian people and we hold dear the sacrifice of these heroes prophetically sung about in our national anthem, “…the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain.”
Charles Ekokotu writes from Nigeria.
Does SARS also fight Boko Haram and other violent islamists?
What did the protesters want? To end SARS? Anything else?