What made " EndSARS" tick for me.

The world is just a click away! With technology one can be anywhere at anytime. This is a great advantage for us as Change Makers, a tool we can use to access a wider audience in real time and less cost.

In the last decades, we have seen a number of campaigns that have gone viral because digital tools and the social media were used. Quite a number comes to mind like "Black lives matter", the Arab springs and not too long ago , EndSARS.

I will share what stood out for me on EndSARS. It started in 2017 with a tweet that was hashtagged #EndSARS . An anti- robbery squad set up in the Nigerian Police were accused of harrasing young people and even carried out extra judicial killings. Many people came out to share their experiences and called for disbandment of he unit.

It continued untill 2020 ,when the way Covid pandemic/ lockdown was managed heightened the gaps between the upper and lower class. The youths took to the streets to protests against Injustices in all facet of living in Nigeria.

What made EndSARS tick?

The resilience of the protesters. They kept going on and on. It was a clear case of " forward ever, backward never". At first the Government turned deaf ears to the protesters. As they refused to back down, the government decided to rebrand the unit. The protesters wanted the disbandment or nothing. The government issued warnings and resisted the protesters which only fueled the protests the more.

The co-ordination of the protests was superb. There were no hierarchical structures yet every one seemed to know what to do, how to do it and at the time. Protests were done spontaneously. And everything was done voluntarily.

The message of the movement resonated with most Nigerians, but mostly with the young people who are most affected by unemployment and who have been most harrased by men of the SARS. With youthful energy on their side, they saw that they had to give their all to get back their country. Else, only a bleaker future awaits them.

The diaspora came responded massively. Money was raised to provide for the logistics online. There was clear accountability of how the monies were spent. Which was examplery, since the youths were decrying the great corruption that had eaten deep into the fabrics of the Country.                                                             It caught the attention of many celebrities. They lent their voices to draw the attention of the world to the protests.

All of these were possible because they used social media.                                                Tweets during the EndSARS protest were said to be more than that for Black lives matter. Social media made the main stream media take up the news.

I learnt through this that for any online campaign to succeed, the populace will have to believe it, own it and be willing to go all out to see it go through. It must resonate with them. If it is a change they desire, they will lend their voices to the cause.                  A people United in a cause will always stand.