By: A Lazy Nigerian Youth

It’s the dawn of a new age. You can smell it on the wind, taste it in the rain, feel it in the heat of the
fire that burns behind the eyes of the Nigerian youth as they take to the streets, and in the passion
behind their words written on every social media platform available to them.
Two major things have divided Nigeria till this point; religion and ethnicity. We could not fight bad
governance because it would become a tribal war. We could not fight terrorism, because it would
become a religious war. But things have changed!
Our generation was given nothing! All that was passed down to children of the 90s was a poor
educational system, defunct electricity system, a steadily declining economy, recycling of old
men to rule over us and redirect our money to personal use while reminding us that we must
respect our elders.

As a Nigerian child, you are taught that the elders know best, they are always right, you cannot talk
back even when you are sure they are wrong because “what the elder sees sitting, you can’t see
even from the highest mount”.
And so we put our heads down, went to school as they asked, studied the courses they said would
better position us for success and graduated with honors.
As we graduated, we sought the better life we had been promised, but there were no jobs, and we
were told we needed to create our own and not wait for handouts, so we did!
Our parents thought we could only make it as lawyers, doctors, or engineers, we proved them
wrong! We showed them that we could make a good living as comedians, Instagram content
creators, social media marketers, filmmakers, artists, cartoonists, editors, the list is endless.
Despite the extremely unfavorable odds in a country like Nigeria and the unreasonable taxes that
suddenly appear when the government notices we are making headway at a new venture, we kept
our heads down, minded our business, and fought for the life we desired.
We left politics to them when they said we had no experience and used all the resources at their
disposal to manipulate the elections in their favor.
We stayed away from the polling units when they threatened our lives.
But it was not enough. We simply could not have peace in the land for which our ancestors shed
blood.
The government formed a unit to curb robbery; the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), and like
everything that is born from corruption, this unit of the police force was brutal.
They were far worse than the police in general, who are known to extort anyone unlucky enough to
cross paths with them. It is general knowledge that for the police to attempt to attend to your case,
you would need to grease their palms. We managed through this, after all, it is also general
knowledge that they are paid miserly sums and so live off of bribes.
What really sets the SARS unit apart is their blatant disregard for human life! This unit is notorious.
for harassment, kidnapping, extortion, rape, and murder.
And so we said enough is enough! We young people cannot work so hard, only to be harassed and
killed by people who are paid with our taxes to protect us from getting robbed!
This is why the #endsars movement was born.
The demands are clean;
Total dissolution of the unit (no redeployment to other units). Members of that unit must leave the
police force entirely.
Those who have been implicated in the deaths of any youth must be brought to justice.
Compensation for the families of those we have lost.
Salaries of police officers must be increased
Officers’ mental health must be evaluated before they are recruited
This is not the time for promises, we will only accept action. And this is only the beginning!
They called us “lazy youths” when we were minding our business and trying to survive. Well, now
we are taking our country back, now we will have our birthright!
Nigeria just celebrated its 60th independence, what do we have to show for it? Bad roads, unstable
power supply, a poor economy, no health care, no jobs, leaders who are looters, lawmakers who
break the law and criminals in law enforcement!
This generation was given nothing! All we were asking was that you let us live! But now, now we
go for everything! For our children, we would get a better Nigeria!
And even as we crowd the streets and demand that the police stop killing us, we have lost more
lives, we have been arrested, we have been drenched in water from water tanks that are
conspicuously absent when a burning building is in need of one.
The young people of Nigeria do not care about ethnic divides, we do not care about religious
barriers, we stand arm in arm with our Muslim, Christian, traditional, southern, northern, queer
brothers and sisters and we say enough is enough! We will be heard! We will fight till Nigeria is
able to proudly own her title; “giant of Africa”!
Posterity will remember that our sweat, our cries, and our blood brought about change.
And so,
For Jimoh Isiaka, for Kaka, for Tina Ezekwe, for Emmanuel Egbo, for Kolade Johnson, for
Precious Odua, for Linda Igwelu, for Chinedu Ani, for Awosika Modebayo, for Anams Chibuike,
for Christian Onuigbo, for Chika Ibeku, for Harry Ataria, for all those we have lost at the hands of
members of the SARS unit, and by extension the police force, we seek justice and an end to police
brutality!
The media is bias in their reportage… If the revolution won’t be televised, it will certainly be tweeted and we shall bear witness.