#EndSARS: Empathy From Zainab Shinkafi

Zainab Shinkafi Bagudu, wife of the Kebbi State governor was on the radio last week talking about the EndSARS protests, about cancer and women’s health.

On the protests, she sounded like a politician, but of course, she isn’t one.

And there is a difference.

Sounding like a politician means saying all the right things.

Being a politician doesn’t necessarily suggest you mean all that you say.

It is more about telling your audience what you think they want to hear.

It is no surprise that that is exactly how a number of politicians and elected officials have been responding the protests engulfing the country.

Some are even joining the protest without really believing there is need for radical change in how the county is policed.

But for Bagudu, the first thing she did was to explain why she qualified to speak to all parties in this crisis between the people and the police on one hand, and the people and the government on the other.

Her selling point in addressing the police and the government about reforms is that she is the daughter of a police officer and security official.

And she constantly made reference to her father, Umaru Shinkafi’s notes and writing.

The writings are from someone who once led the National Security Organisation.

Saying that the EndSARS protests that have set Nigeria on fire have been a success would be an understatement

And according to her, some of the problems plaguing the police have lingered for a long time.

In appealing to protesting youths to leave the streets and back down, Bagudu talked as a mother whose children also have to live in a society where no one is safe from a violent police system.

What she didn’t talk about and may explain why she was diplomatic and made no real effort to castigate anyone side, is that she is the wife of a government official, a state governor and stakeholder in the present political set up.

Bagudu, like everyone else however acknowledged there are bad eggs within the ranks of the police.

No one is talking about uprooting the police, but the idea that armed thugs could be replacing them on the streets as a way of keeping protesters away is a frightening concept.

But the acknowledgement did not in any way minimise the impact of her words.

What she conveyed more than anything else was some level of empathy towards all sides in what is increasingly looking like a circle of violence that easily go out of everyone’s control.

Empathy towards young people on streets is the only response there can be to the protests.

Bagudu may be in the position to speak to all sides, chances are, her words would drown in the midst of louder and more forceful voices.

Saying that the EndSARS protests that have set Nigeria on fire have been a success would be an understatement.

They have caught the attention of the entire world.

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It would also be a misrepresentation of what is going on to say that the protests were completely spontaneous and just happened.

The truth is that tension between the police and a certain part of the population has been simmering for years.

And when the moment was right, it finally boiled over.

Initially, all the protesters wanted was an end to the police unit responsible for the human rights violations against citizens.

That the government is taking steps to meet these demands suggests that they have been shaken by the protests

Young Nigerians have lost their lives in the hands of the police, some have been unfairly detained without any legal basis.

But the most common allegations thrown at the police unit is that they extort youths on street, search their phones for financial details and basically hold them to ransom.

The so called anti-robbery squad was the one robbing Nigerians in broad daylight.

The fact that it has been going on for years explains why the protests resonate with so many young people.

It is also why religious bodies, Civil Society Organisations and even a handful of public officials have offered support to the protests.

And as long as the protests have the public behind them, the sky is the limit.

Not only will the likelihood of reforming the police increase, chances are that the protests will forever alter the relationship between government and the people in Nigeria.

The question is whether the protest movement can manage the success and whether they can retain the support of the general public.

Barely three days after the protests against police brutality kicked off, the presidency approved the key demand of protesting youths and dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force.

It is usually difficult for governments to respond to demands of protesters that is until it is too late.

In this case however, the almost instant response from the government seems to have further galvanised protesters ensuring they would spread to several more states other than Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory.

Now the demands have grown beyond the need to end state violence against the people.

And these are reasonable demands.

Protesters want the immediate release of all arrested protesters, justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensation for their families, setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reported police misconduct within a period of days 10 days and carrying out psychological evaluation and retaining of all disbanded SARS operatives before they can be deployed.

The very last of the demands is that the government should increase police salary and they should be adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of the citizens.

That the government is taking steps to meet these demands suggests that they have been shaken by the protests.

The possibility exist that the government could take wrong steps in trying to bring the protests to an end and further inflame the country’s youth.

Asking more than policing reform or staying out on the street for longer than will only make the protests about political grievances

There is already talk of rolling in the tanks and bringing in the army to quell the protests.

This would an overreaction.

There is no doubt that if the protests had ended prematurely, they have just another meaningless exercise of youth frustration.

This could also linger for too long and Nigeria would start to look like Hong Kong where all that was special about it, has all but gone.

But it isn’t just the Nigerian government could make a wrong move.

Protesters, under pressure and still in the euphoria of initial success could very easily be the ones to overplay their hand.

Changes in, a deviation from the initial demands in some ways present the first signs that the protest movement could fritter away the successes so far recorded.

But even more worrisome is the impact of the protesters, who in the name of getting the attention of the government are blocking major highways.

That is not earning them any sympathy.

In fact, it is turning some people against them. Millions of citizens relate with the protests.

But the moment the protesters try to inflict suffering and hardship of other road users, it is the government that earns public sympathy and wins the propaganda war.

At this time of the protests, the focus should not be about disrupting the lives of everybody else.

It should be about taking advantage of the present moment and getting the message across that it cannot be business as usual.

Changes, real changes have to be implemented in how citizens are policed.

Asking more than policing reform or staying out on the street for longer than will only make the protests about political grievances.

And in the end, nothing will happen.