EDITED : Before stating anything. I want express my sadness over the death of our brothers and sisters who lost their lives on the 20th of October, 2020 and the many more who have also lost theirs in the course of this fight for freedom. I am in no way better than any of you. You laid your lives so that we can live ours better. I want to say that we will not and never relent on this fight. We must win this fight. You'll forever remain heroes and never be forgotten in our hearts. Liven on warriors.


Good day nairalanders,
So much to say, but I have to be as brief as possible. So from where do I begin?

Let me start by doffing my hat and saluting every young person who in whatever way supported this #ENDSARS movement. You are truly a hero whether noticed or not.

I have been typing this write up for a while now, trying to make it precise and concise. But as events unfold I have to edit it everytime. Yesterday's was the worse I could ever imagine. It has affected many things I already typed.

Since what I will be talking about will be very lengthy, I will categorize the writeup into headings and paragraphs, so as not to bore readers.

WHAT WE DID WELL
It is an excellent idea that the protest has no leader and took to the pattern of the Mexican Mafia called La Eme, where everyone is a leader and a brother. Thus making it very difficult to break in by the government.

I'm extremely impressed at how Nigerian youths have united and shown so much support to each other. This is something I always wished for, but I don't have the platform to air my views. Support in terms of feeding, health, security, kind gestures like paying for an artificial leg for that lady amongst numerous others. I believe this is the begining of testing our strength.

I want to commend us for understanding that the media in Nigeria is highly compromised, thus the need for us to setup our own radio network "SORO SOKE"

I want to commend us also for putting up a "5for5" demand before the presidency and consistently mounting pressure on them to fulfill every part of it.

REALITIES
1st REALITY : Yes Buhari is in the know about what is happening, no doubt. But it might suprise you to know that Buhari has not been given a real picture of what is really happening. They probably just said to him "your excellency, a handfull of people are not happy with SARS brutality, so they said I should come and beg you to look into it. They also made a few demands.". Those around the President have made it a duty of painting a picture of perfection in the country.

They control the entire media space and everything related. This means the daily newspapers brought to him have been properly vetted. The news stations he watches are all controlled by these big shots. The initial most trusted news channel Channels, is owned by Tony Momoh. This same person was appointed by Buhari to act as the governing council chair to Unilag. Such romance, what does that tell you? TVC is owned by a strong member of the ruling party. NTA, Oh! lets respect the dead. Which other TV station is capable of giving big blows to the government?

Next stop should have been the internet but unfortunately, I doubt if your president uses the twitter app or the internet at large.

2nd REALITY : SARS is a menace no doubt, but wouldn't you say same about the Nigerian army? Customs? Ordinary Police Officers? EFCC? Even Civil Defence they gave guns to just "yesterday" have extrajudicial killings in their name. So what then is the problem? Is it the name of the squad/body, the people in the squad? Their trainings? Or what? Let's get down to it.

Logically speaking, what these operatives do is just a manifestation of the average Nigerian. If you take the rifle, uniform, badge, capacity and office of a SARS officer and give it to an ordinary civilian, he'll most likely do same or worst. And I'll tell you why much later.

AN INTERLUDE
SOME TRUTHS YOU DONT KNOW
On sunday I had a chat with a Police Officer, and I recorded him half way though very late (when I discovered those truths cannot go unrecorded) but I can't post it here because nairaland does not support such media, but I will convert it to a video and post the link here much later. Beneath is a summary of some of the things he said.

Firstly he said, I am 101% in support of #REFORMTHEPOLICE / #ENDSARS and I'm sure 80% of junior officers are in support. Then he continued saying:

1. There is a system in the Nigerian Police Force which mounts pressure on you to be corrupt. You cannot avoid it. For instance, you are asked to go on patrol with the police truck. To start with there is no fuel inside the truck, but you must ensure that you and your team fill the tank with fuel and go for the patrol. You can never find a NPF truck with more than 1litre of fuel inside. Definitely extortion on the road must occur, because I'm definitely not going to take out of my #40,000 or #60,000 naira meagre salary with a wife and maybe 3 children to fuel the truck.

2. He said, for one to become the head of some squads and teams of strategic points, one could pay as high as 10,000,000 bribe because it's sure that you'll make multiples of that amount. In the first place how come you have so much money to spare from your meagre salary, he questioned? Secondly how are you going to meet up if you're not planning to rob people and shoot them if they don't unlock their phones and show you their bank balance?

3. Then I asked him if it was true that they buy buttons and sew their uniforms for that ridiculous amount I heard. He confirmed it that they buy about 8 buttons for their uniform and so on totalling over 50-60,000. How does one meet up?

4. One of the biggest jackpot that can change a Police Officer's life is the UN peace keeping missions he said. When you return from that mission, UN calculates your 1year stay there and pays you an equivalent of 8-9million naira. Such an amount of money is life changing, he said. But even that one has been hijacked by the big guns in the NPF. Ideally, one who has gone before isn't supposed to go again until everyone has gone like in the Nigerian army. But in the NPF, the person who went last time, will take 1Million out of his/her 9million and bribe his or her way again for another, thus depriving others. There is a commision paid on return to the top.

5. During the Edo election, we were about 31,000 officers who went for that election both uniformed and undercovered, he said. (I was stunned). We were supposed to be paid 100,000 each on return. But we received only 40,000. Now ask me how to receive this 40,000 he said, I asked how? He said you must lobby with the person who will put your name. His cut is 20,000. (I became weak).

6. We are supposed to be entitled to a lot of allowances, but they cut all of them, he said. Furniture allowance for instance was totally cut off. Look at our barracks, go and see how messed up it looks, but you dare not say a thing. We have to suffer in silence.

7. I joined the NPF 16years ago with school cert, he said. We were asked to further our education if we want to grow, I hustled to get an NCE, some of my colleagues HND, ND, Degrees and so on. Still nothing till date.

8. There is a very big romance on-going between the government and our institutional heads. And the monies involved is not in tens of billions. They've got each other's back for the looting. There is so much money within the NPF, he said. Outside government fundings the NPF recieves quite a lot of money. Companies come to pay homage to top officers monthly, amidst others that can't be typed here. Wherever you go you find the police in charge of security, but we the junior officers dont benefit in any way.

9. He further said, myself in particular and I'm sure a whole lot of Nigerian Police officers who are suffering in silence are stronly in support of this movement because we are the biggest beneficiaries. The only ones not supporting are the corrupt few at the top benefitting directly and the few SARS unit officers extorting people.

WHY IT MIGHT NOT WORK
THE ROMANCE BETWEEN THE POLICE BIG GUNS AND THE GOVERNMENT
There's obviously a deep "romance" and "handshake" between the NPF and the Government, though this is to our detriment it doesn't matter. Because a wrong system will always seem right to those benefitting from it. To think of it that we did not demand anything tangible yet they cannot grant our request, that alone should tell you the amount of money they are raking in from the SARS units daily.

INFERIORITY COMPLEX
Should the government heed to our demands, we will from now henceforth realize the magnitude of power we possess. This primary reason alone is why government is refusing to succumb. They don't want to feel inferior.

OTHERS
The international community is not interested in our case. Let's not deceive ourselves, I watched on CNN how a sincere man said point blank that Nigeria is not a priority. I have lost faith in organizations like the UN, ICC, AMNESTY, AU, ECOWAS etc. Because I have never heard or seen them take any action before. And if there's any requirement for their intervention, I believe Nigeria has surpassed it multiple times. But I have never seen or heard them do anything. No matter the killing spree.

The government is using the access to tools under their control to discredit the peaceful protest in order to tag it a violent one. As a result launch attacks and impose curfew. Unfortunately I am posting this after the attacks. Because I wasn't able to finish proof reading this lengthy write-up before yesterday's attack. I knew it would happen. Once again, may the souls of the departed rest in peace. You will continue to live in our hearts.


SOME NOTES TO TAKE AND POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS AS TO HOW WE CAN MAKE IT WORK

OUR DEMANDS AND NEGOTIATIONS : Yes I understand that we don't have a protesting leader/face/front and that's good. But when government began to ask us what we wanted. We ought to come together and draft out a flawless plan of what we actually wanted. There are professional negotiators specialized in the act of negotiating. We ought to have come together to employ the services of one. Himself and a lawyer should have drafted out a demand for the youth and negotiated with the government on our behalf.

A STRUCTURE : Earlier on, I said that the killings being perpetuated by the Nigerian security operatives only reflect the typical character of an average Nigerian when handed power. This simply implies that "these extrajudicial killings will not stop so long as uneducated, untrained, average power drunk Nigerians will wear those uniforms and hold those rifles" unless we want to be economical with the truth.

Now that we know the inevitable, in my honest opinion the best way to curb Police excessess is to design a structure to handle their expected excesses.

Some of which includes:
1. Body Camera : Though expensive to maintain, it's still cheaper than a human's life. I always say, "A camera is the deadliest weapon today". This alone can put Police and every other agency in check for as long as possible.
The biggest advantage of this is it'll help to improve police accountability, transparency, and legitimacy.

2. Truck Camera : Quite similar to the body camera, this will further strengthen the evidence for and against the alleged offender. Kicking against this idea shows that our police is not trust worthy.

OUR INCORRUPTIBLE MEDIA : Although this has already been done, I must commend the initiators of the SORO SOKE RADIO outfit. I must say we still need more especially a TV station. This is as important as Oxygen. I also want to use this medium to salute ARISE TV what they have been doing. We hope they dont compromise too. I want to state here at my own risk that Channels and TVC have been compromised. And I have known this since early 2016, but I cannot say it here because everyone in Nigeria who condemns the government is automatically termed a PDP member. People fail to understand that some of us hate both.

TELECOMMUNICATION : Sincerely, one of us has to go into telecomm business and we will support you immensely. I had to edit and add this point after seeing how helpless we were yesterday. We need one of us in the game.

REWARD AND PUNISHMENTS : Nigeria is where it is today because we lack this two (rewards and punishments). No consequences for whatever action. The impunity has further boldened others to do wrong. On our list of demands, we were not specific about what the "Justice for all victims" should be. We gave the government that brought us the same pain, a "blank cheque" to choose what to do with offenders they are trying to sheild for their selfish interest. What do you expect them to do? I expected precision on the demand. To start with, anything beneath death penalty for killing an unarmed civilian is a stupid demand. This is the only way to enforce good working ethics. Other offences can be jailable.

CONSTITUTIONAL BACKING : Earlier, I stated that we need a lawyer and a negotiator who properly understand some of these things, their possiblities and feasiblity. I stand to be corrected on this point, but I believe both the House of Assembly and the Senate will have to pass laws criminalizing criminal acts by the police and the punishments as laws so as to aid enforcement.

With this being made law, should an officer contravene, we can hit the streets in protest. This would make a lot of sense since it's already a written down law.

INVESTIGATING BODY : We must not let the government hijack this panel. We must ensure we have incorruptible and bold representatives representing the youth in whatever panel and capacity they setup. Be it the panel to investigate Police misconduct, or assesment of mental health status of officers into tactical units. We must be a part of the process. The days of "sidon look" are over.

CAMERA LAW : Sincerely this has to come under its own seperate heading. Because I don't see what damage a camera can cause if the attacker is not doing something he shouldn't be doing. We must press for a law to protect people who video activities of force operatives. Snatching of recording devices, breaking, harassing, deleting and so on must be a serious offence with the ability for the harrased to lay whatever claim since evidence has been erased or altered.

ONENESS (ONE FOR ALL, ALL FOR ONE) : I grew up in Nigeria to hear one stupid slogan called "Mind your business". I'm happy we are gradually seeing that, that slogan is a stupid slogan. We can not mind our business anymore because when one of us is affected all of us are. Whenever SARS or whatever stops anyone of us, I'll write this one in caps " WE MUST ALL COME ROUND, PASSERSBY MUST STOP, PEOPLE AROUND MUST COME CLOSE AND DEMAND TO KNOW THE OFFENCE OF THE YOUNG LAD. WE MUST HAVE EACH OTHER'S BACK, FRUSTRATE THEM TO A POINT WHERE THEY GIVE UP ON ARRESTING ANY OF US ILLEGALY ". We must have each other's back always.

Talking about having each other's back, we must ensure that everyone of us locked, arrested during this protest is fought for and freedom regained.

OUR POLITICAL PARTY : The last and probably most important point is the need to register our political party. The present crop of leaders we have today started ruling this country in their 30's and 40's. Yet they've refused to give us same oppurtunity. But truth be told, power is taken not given. And so shall it be, we shall grab that power. We may loose this battle, but we must not loose the war in 2023. We must ensure that we vote and defend. That's the real fight to die for. Because I will lay my all during that election.

I will urge us to start selecting candidates with reputable track records and character from now. People who have handled the little in their hands excellently. We must ensure we support them. Let's set up structures in every state and credible people to occupy positions from Local Government to Federal Goverment.

Lets donate funds to this cause via crypto currency. This protest has already shown how accountable we can be if we choose to. No amount is to small. If 1,000,000 youths donate 100naira to this cause that would be 100,000,000 naira. I know we can donate 500-1000naira per month until 2023. We now know that cost of governance is not expensive, we only have theives at the helm of affairs. And come 2023, we must oust them all.

Thanks.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS. THANKS.