By Eze Victor Chibuzo
Protest
Protest have been a tool used by the civilized and will informed nations to inspire positive social change and the advance of human right, protest enable representative democracy by enabling direct participation in public affairs. It helps individuals to express grievances, to share views and opinions, to expose flaws in Government and to ensure that Government are accountable for their actions.
Protest as a social tool, have not been well adopted in Nigeria and African as a whole due to the system of government. People are afraid that when they embark on protest they will be arrested and harassed which has been the case in some early protest carried out in Africa.
ENDSARS Protest and it's Significance in Nigeria
The following significance were explained in this article.
- Nigerian citizen have understand the power of protest
- Nigerian citizens been aware of their human right ( right to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and of association)
- Nigerians understanding the power of social media
ENDSARS protest in Nigeria has shown that Nigerian Citizens have understand the power of protests, the power of coming together and lending their voice out to issues that is affecting their social well being.
ENDSARS protest has also shown how Nigerians have come to understand their human right, right for peaceful protest, right to gather together and express their grievance when things are not going well in the country. The dreaded FSARS also know as SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) have cut the life of many promise young Nigerians short. They are devils in angel's cloths as been called by some Nigerians. They engage in all forms of police brutalities such as killing of innocent youths in a slightest misunderstanding, extorting huge amount of money from Nigerian youths tagging them fraudsters a.k.a YAHOO BOYS. While in the actual sense most of all this people they called yahoo boys are Crytocurrency traders, Forex traders, Webmaster and developers, bloggers and YouTube content creators, just to mention few.
ENDSARS protest in Nigeria has shown that Nigerians have come to know their right. They can now hold government accountable for their actions, with this awareness Nigeria will soon be a country where it's citizens can now boldly stand together and demand for change, reform and expresses grievance on issues affecting them.
If Nigerians can exercise their right of freedom of peaceful assembly as recognized by Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights as the have been demonstrated in the ENDSARS protest. they will be able to create a massive awareness in the issues affecting them such as Socio-Political, economic and environmental issues.
Another significant of ENDSARS protests is Nigerians understanding the power of social media. Social media was well utilized as a tool for proper dissemination of information on issues that is affecting them. #ENDSARS was trending in all social media platform across the country. Banners, photos and articles with description #ENDSARS, End Police Brutality was seen across all social media.
President of Nigeria, Mohammadu Buhari lose not less than 100,000 twitter followers as a means of expressing grievance on social media of ENDSARS protest.
Social media can be used for positive change. If properly utilized, it can be used to disseminate information, ideas and thoughts that can help the government bring out policies and reforms that is best tailored towards addressing the needs of the citizens.
What Nigerians Should know about peaceful protest
Nigerians should know that protest constitute a fundamental pillar of democracy. Protest occur in non ideal society as people stand up for their civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights, struggle against repression, fight against poverty, protect the environment or demand for sustainable development.
Nigerians should bear in mind that protest enables all people to individually and collectively express dissent and seek to influence and strengthen government policy making and governing practices.
The right to protest constitute the number of indivisible, interdependent and interconnected human rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the right to life, privacy, liberty, and security of the person.
Conclusion
I call on the Government to respect, protect and facilitate the enjoyment of the right to protest without discrimination of any kind, unjustified restriction, harassment and intimidation, detention, torture or extrajudicial killings.
I urge Nigerians to enjoy their right and they should continue to lend their voice out in solidarity and oneness to the issues affecting their life's and well being be it social-political, economic, security, environmental and cultural issues.
References
Right to protest: https://right-to-protest.org/debate-protest-rights/why-the-right-to-protest/ Article 19, London.
Human rights: www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/human-rights/
Universal Declaration of Human Right: www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/foundation-international-human-rights-law
