The October 2020 #EndSARS Protest and the Transformation of the Nigerian State

Abstract

On October 8, 2020, sequel to a viral video where a young Nigerian was shot and dragged out of a vehicle by officials of SARS, who drove off with the vehicle; Nigerian youths trooped to the streets of Lagos and Abuja etc.; within days it has spread throughout Southern Nigerian with the youths demanding for the end of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) with the hastag: #EndSARS. Within two weeks it had metamorphosed to a number of other hashtags: #EndBadGovernment, #EndCorruption, #LekkiMassacre and others. On October 20, 2020, soldiers of the Nigerian Army, confronted the protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos and opened fire point blank on Flag waving and National Anthem singing young Nigerians, killing scores of them. This drew condemnation and outcry in Nigeria and all over the world. Given that the extra-judicial killing of Yusuf Mohammed in 2007 triggered off the Boko Haram insurgency and the killings of IPOB members has also militarised IPOB: killed two DSS officials in Enugu, five Soldiers and scores of police personnel in Obigbo during the post-#EndSARS riot. This paper using the Marxian Post-Colonial State Theory, argues that the method of the #EndSARS protest; its non-visible collegiate leadership and the involvement of young people who are not under and influenced by the commodity mediating Nigerian post-colonial state, will lead to the resolution of the contradiction of the Nigerian state: from a Post-colonial state to a more inclusive state. The study used the qualitative method of study, with secondary data collection and content analysis to analyse data generated.