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#EndSARS: Frustration among Nigeria’s youth and the poor

04 November 2020 | Story Dr Sunday Paul C. Onwuegbuchulam | Photo Supplied

DrSundayOnwuegbuchulam_web read more — Dr Sunday Paul C. Onwuegbuchulam, hails from Nigeria and is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country has, since the first week of October 2020, seen a series of protests to end perceived police brutality under the banner #EndSARS. In this opinion piece, I argue that these protests reflect the general frustration among Nigerians concerning the sorry state of affairs in the country’s socio-economic and political space in recent times.

The #EndSARS protests called for drastic police reform in the country and specifically the disbandment of a police unit called Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). SARS was formed in 1992 amidst concern for increasing incidences of armed robberies and other organised crimes in the country. The unit was equipped and mandated to respond to these crimes; they have what could be termed a licence to kill.

Abuse of power

In recent times, however, SARS morphed into a menace to the people it was supposed to protect, especially the youth. There have been a series of reported human rights violations in the form of torture, harassments, extrajudicial killings, extortion and downright corruption. Eventually, SARS became synonymous with abuse of power by the police with a concomitant toxic climate of fear and brutality. Amid heightened concern for the safety of citizens vis-à-vis SARS, some activists took to social media in 2017 and hence the birth of the #EndSARS movement. Since the movement started, the activists have succeeded in getting the government to commit to several police reforms. However, the impunity by the SARS continued and things came to a head on 3 October 2020, when a viral video allegedly shows SARS officers shooting an unarmed victim in Delta State. It seems this was the straw that broke the camel’s back and the youth took to the streets to say enough is enough.

The relatively peaceful protest continued for several weeks and resulted in the country’s leadership announcing the disbandment of the SARS unit. However, the leadership sought to replace SARS with yet another police unit called Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT). This was not accepted by the protesting youths and the #EndSwat followed the earlier call for #EndSARS. The youths went further to demand the end of bad governance and corruption in the country and refused to leave the streets until the president addressed them and these issues. Sadly, peaceful protesters were reportedly injured and or killed by security agents in different parts of the country during these protests. On the night of 20 October 2020, there were also reports of the army shooting innocent protesters at a toll gate at Lekki, a suburb of Lagos. There have been conflicting accounts over whether or not there was indeed shooting and killing of peaceful protesters, with the army and the Lagos state authorities denying that it took place. But what eyewitness accounts and video clips and pictures from the incident at Lekki show is that there was some form of violence perpetrated against peaceful protesters.

Full article

Opinion article Dr Sunday Paul C. Onwuegbuchulam, Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State.

News Archive

Council votes on appointment of senior staff

2004-11-18

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) today voted on the filling of three senior vacancies, including one post at Dean level and two at the level of Vice-Dean.

The Council voted as follows:


Dr Natie Luyt will be offered the post of Dean: Student Affairs	Prof Engela Pretorius will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities	Dr Choice Makhetha will be offered the post of Vice-Dean: Student Affairs

“There are special challenges for the UFS in the short and medium term regarding transformation of our residences, and a certain combination of management qualities and skills is desirable. As a result of the diversity of the UFS’s student community it is therefore important to us to follow a team approach to deal with the challenges. With the combination of Drs Luyt and Makhetha, I believe we will be able to manage student affairs effectively and skillfully,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“It is wonderful that we are able to celebrate the outcome of this process that has brought forward such excellent candidates who reflect our country’s diversity. It shows that we can achieve the goals of quality and diversity at the same time,” says Prof Fourie.

Prof Pretorius obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) from the UFS, except for the Certificate in Gender Policy Management (cum laude) which she obtained in 2000 from WITS. She joined the Department of Sociology at UFS in 1980 and has headed the Department since 2001. She acted as Vice-Dean: Faculty of Humanities since July 2004. She has some thirty publications to her credit, published both nationally and internationally and has delivered 20 national and international papers. She is a member of the South African Sociological Association and is a member of the Council of the association and of the Editorial Board of Society in Transition, the society’s journal. She is also a member of the South African Academy for Science and Art and the Federation of African Women Educationalists in South Africa (FAWESA). Project involvement includes the Australian Women’s Executive Development Programme and the project Executive Development of Senior Women in South African Higher Education Institutions. She is also an NRF panelist.

Dr Luyt obtained his qualifications (BA, BA (Hons) (cum laude), MA (cum laude) and D Phil) at the UFS and started his career at the same institution in 1980 as lecturer in Political Science. He was promoted to senior lecturer in 1983 and appointed as Director: Student Affairs in 1997. He has been acting as Dean: Student Affairs since 2003. Dr Luyt completed several work-related training courses, among others a course in ethnic and multiculturality at the Swiss Institute for Federalism and a course in conflict management at the South Tyrolean Economic and Social Institute.

Dr Makheta also obtained all her qualifications (BA, BA (Hons), MA in Political Science and Ph D in Political Science) at the UFS and started working as a student assistant in Political Science at the same institution in 1999. She was promoted to junior assistant in 2000, coordinator and facilitator of Political Science in 2001, assistant/acting Director: Student Affairs in 2001 and acting Director: Student Affairs in 2003. Dr Makhetha is currently a Senior Political Analyst at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The UFS Council also approved the promotion of nine professors to the rank of senior professor. They are Proff Louise Cilliers (Department English and Classical Languages), Dap Louw (Department of Psychology), Philip Nel (Department Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice), Dirk van den Berg (Department of History of Art and Visual Culture Studies) Dingie van Rensburg (Director: Centre for Health Systems Research and Develoment), Andries Raath (Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law), James du Preez (Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology), Johan Grobbelaar (Department of Plant Sciences) and Louis Scott (Department of Plant Sciences).

This is the first group ever of senior professors at the UFS. The post level was created to provide better career and earnings opportunities for high quality academics and to increase the attractiveness of an academic career to young people.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

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