Nigeria’s ineffective President Muhammadu Buhari. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
[Speaking Truth To Power]
I send greetings to Pan African sisters and brothers throughout the continent and throughout the world. Today I want to express solidarity and support for sisters and brothers in Nigeria.
As all of you know by now they have been resisting, they have been fighting against an outfit called Special Anti-Robbery squad, SARS, and the hashtash EndSARS, has been the campaign for over two weeks now, and 10 days ago SARS was supposedly disbanded. The protests have continued because there are many other grievances. There is high level of unemployment, there is corruption, there are all the pressure that have been borne on Nigerians by the restriction that have also been brought about by the Covid19 pandemic.
And then yesterday we saw an escalation when the armed forces in Nigeria opened fire first with teargas and then with live bullets in Lagos against unarmed peaceful demonstrators. This is outrageous. This is why every African, every Pan-African, every individual of good conscience should come out and support the Nigerians and condemn this abuse of power by the state in Nigeria.
No government in the world has the right or the authority to attack unarmed peaceful demonstrators using taxpayer financed weapons, and taxpayer paid personnel of the armed forces, to attack its own citizens. This is completely outrageous. We must condemn it in the strongest terms, and we must support the struggle of the people in Nigeria. We should do so by tweeting or posting information on social media about what is unfolding in Nigeria so that the authorities there know that the whole world is watching and that people object to the abuse of power.
And you know the most cynical thing is that this outfit was called Special Anti-Robbery Squad and then it turns out that they were indeed committing some of the biggest robberies and other crimes: extorting from Nigerian citizens, beating Nigerian citizens, kidnapping Nigerians, killing Nigerians, summary killings—this is what SARS was doing.
That us why we have to support Nigerians in the struggle. And another point is this, the youth make up the vast majority of Africa’s population. In a country like Uganda for example, 80% of the population, under the age of 35, and throughout the continent more than 60% of the population is under the age of 25. The youth are the present of Africa. They must come into governance in Africa, and things are going to change dramatically, beginning now and in the next five years. So whether the seniors know it or not, the youth have the numbers. They will come into power. So the best thing to do is to spare the continent, and spare us all, the unnecessary killings and start bringing youth into leadership position in all these countries,
And then I want to point out one other thing, the cynical names that these outfits always assume. Special Anti-Robbery Squad, and then it turns out they are the biggest bandits. In Uganda there was an outfit called Crime Preventers, they were carrying out the worst crimes. In addition to robberies, killing civilians who supported opposition parties and did not support the party of the current dictator Gen. Yoweri Museveni, a Western puppet who has been running the country for 34 years now with Western Support. He serves the role that the late Mobutu used to serve in what was Zaire, and now Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo. Human rights abuses are ignored so long as he creates an enabling and accommodating environment for Western capital, and that is what General Museveni does in Uganda.
We need to oppose the police abuse, government abuse of power in every African country. So Nigeria’s struggle is not just a Nigerian struggle, it’s a struggle for all Africans, for the well-being and dignity of every African. The Ugandan struggle is similarly a struggle for all Africans. And we saw the abuses carried out by the police in South Africa, supposedly to enforce Covid19 restrictions, committing some of the worst crimes against unarmed civilians in South Africa. So similarly, South African resistance to police abuse, and government abuse of power should also be the struggle for every African, every person that wants African dignity to be elevated throughout the continent.
So please let’s support our sisters and brothers in Nigeria so that tomorrow they can also come and support our struggles for our common humanity and dignity throughout Africa.
Peace and blessings comrades.
