A letter to #EndSARS protesters

BY IYABO AJEWOLE

Great Nigerian youths!

I write this open letter to you, the gallant Nigerian youths, with all sense of responsibility. I am under 50 years of age, and so I hope it’s not out of place to call myself a youth. I am a woman and so I understand what it is to be a second class citizen in a capitalist society. I am a mother and so I feel deeply the emotions running deep at the brutal killings of your peers by the police. More importantly, I am a Nigerian social activist living in Nigeria and a prime witness to your heroism of the past 13 days in respect of #EndSARS and police brutqality in Nigeria generally.

Permit me to highlight some of my observations, and the steps I think we should take going forward.

*Despite all provocations and assaults by paid armed thugs of the ruling class, you the Nigerian youths have demonstrated a capacity to be resolute, disciplined and focused on the task ahead; that of re-engineering a new Nigerian of our dreams. Whether we believe it or not, this #EndSARS movement is a concrete reality of our yearnings for good governance and a better Nigeria. It runs far deeper than just disbanding SARS.

*The establishment and status quo will fight back. No oppressor in history has ever let go without a fight. The Nigerian government has already begun the siege. They are pursuing a dual strategy of blackmail and division. They are using thugs as agent provocateur to open up an avenue for violent military attacks on peaceful protesters. Side by side with that, they are also going to be using demagogues and populist of all sorts, who are sympathetic to the government and who, in the last analysis are part of the rot, to ‘advise and counsel’ you to withdraw from the barricades while presenting themselves as mediators between you and the government all in a bid to truncate the struggle.

*The traditional Press cannot be relied on to air our matter in a progressive way let alone support our cause wholeheartedly.

In the light of these, I suggest, as a matter of urgency, that we institute the following agenda:

1. Formation of neighborhood to neighborhood committees for the different aspects of propagation of the struggle from within the ranks of protesters. The most pressing of which are Security Committees, Food Committees, Health Committees and Publicity Committees.

2. Establishment of a Coordinating Leadership drawn from members of the various neighborhood committees by online or offline elections of same, and with the provision for recall. That is, any member of any committee at any level can be recalled and replaced by the ‘congress’ of the youths. This is to prevent the emergence of leaders that may later sell-out the movement.

3. Linking up our struggle with that of the informal sector, the men of the military and police forces (not their officers, of course) and especially that of the Organised Labour (not Labour Aristocrat or bureaucrats whose only regular trademark is selling out). The tactics here will be to appeal directly to the rank and file members of these organizations, who like us, are victims in the hands of the clueless and visionless ruling class.

4. A formation of an alternative political party of the youths, and all other oppressed layers and toiling masses of Nigeria. For immediate registration of same, and for fresh voters’ registration exercise that will accommodate all Nigerian young people over age 18, and enable them to get voter’s cards within a couple of months.

I rest my case. For Now.