Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

On 20 October 2020, the military and police force opened fatal shootings at peaceful unarmed #EndSARS protesters. This article examines the political and socio-economic undercurrents of #EndSARS protest. It argues that the predatory state–society relations where the state is the predator and citizens are the preys nurtured the increasing distrust between the state and its citizens, and ultimately, resulted in the deepening mutual mistrust between the police and people. The article concludes that the #EndSARS protest created opportunity for the Nigerian state to accelerate and accumulate its bourgeoning repressive character instead of reducing it. It recommends symbiotic state–society relations.

Keywords

Nigeria police force security police brutality #EndSARS protest human rights political reforms

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abati

(2020) EndSARS: almost a Nigerian revolution. Proshare, 4 November. Available at: https://www.proshareng.com/news/POLITICS/-EndSARS–Almost-a-Nigerian-Revolution/53736#:~:text=The%20increase%20in%20the%20pump,to%20ignite%20their%20anger%20either

Abegunde

(2015) Recurrent syndrome of brutalisation and human rights by abuse Nigerian Police: issues arising. Journal of Law and Criminal Justice 3(1): 133–146.

Aborisade

Obileye

(2018) Systematic brutality, torture and abuse of human rights by the Nigerian police: narratives of inmates in Ogun State prisons. The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology 15(10): 1–16.

Adeshokan

(2020) Is this Nigeria’s Arab spring moment? The Slate Group, 3 November. Available at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/11/02/is-this-nigerias-arab-spring-moment/

Afeno

(2014) Killings by the Security Forces in Nigeria: Mapping and Trend Analysis, 2006-2014 (Nigeria Working Papers Series). Ibadan, Nigeria: IFRA.

Alemika

Chukwuma

(2000) Police-community Violence in Nigeria. Ikeja, Nigeria; Abuja, Nigeria: Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Amnesty International (AI) (2009) Killing at Will: Extrajudicial Executions and Other Unlawful Killings by the Police in Nigeria. London: AI.

Amnesty International (AI) (2020) Nigeria: Time to End Impunity, Torture and Other Violations by Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Abuja, Nigeria: AI.

Amusan

Saka

(2018) The Nigerian Police Force and the task of policing democratic Nigeria: issues and problems. Anthropologist 31(1–3): 105–116.

10.

Aniche

(2018a) Community policing and its relevance for contemporary Nigeria. In: Falola

Kalu

(eds) Africa and Globalisation: Challenges of Governance and Creativity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.205–223.

11.

Aniche

(2018b) The ‘David’ and ‘Goliath’ and 2015 election outcomes in Nigeria: from the opposition to the ruling party. Insight on Africa: A Journal of Contemporary African Affairs 10(1): 21–36.

12.

Aniche

Falola

(2021) Introduction: institutions and development in Africa. In: Aniche

Falola

(eds) Rethinking Institutions, Processes, and Development in Africa. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, pp.1–13.

13.

Aniche

Iwuoha

Alumona

, et al. (2021a) When all hands are not on deck: intergovernmental relations and the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in the Nigerian federation. Politikon 49: 43–59.

14.

Aniche

Iwuoha

Obi

(2021b) Covid-19 containment policies in Nigeria: the role of conflictual federal-state relations in the fight against the pandemic. Review of African Political Economy 48(169): 442–451.

15.

Bappah

(2016) Nigeria’s military failure against the Boko Haram insurgency. African Security Review 25(2): 146–158.

16.

Buyse

(2018) Squeezing civic space: restrictions on civil society organizations and the linkages with human rights. The International Journal of Human Rights 22(8): 966–988.

17.

Centre for Global Challenges (2018) Civic space under attack. Available at: https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/centre-for-global-challenges/projects/platform-projects-2018/civic-space-underattack#:~:text=Anti%2DNGO%20laws%2C%20arbitrary%20inspections,in%20countries%20that%20are%20dictatorships (accessed 19 December 2018).

18.

Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG) (2021) Good Governance Index. Singapore: CIG.

19.

Cole

(1999) Post-colonial systems. In: Mawby

(ed.) Policing across the World: Issues for the Twenty-First Century. New York: University College London Press.

20.

CSO Police Reform Observatory (2020) Report on Judicial Panels of Inquiry into Police Brutal and Extra-Judicial Killings by the Police and Other Security Agencies in Nigeria. Abuja, Nigeria: CSO Police Reform Observatory.

21.

Dambo

Ersoy

Auwal

, et al. (2021) Office of the citizen: a qualitative analysis of Twitter activity during the Lekki shooting in Nigeria’s #EndSARS protests. Information, Communication & Society. Epub ahead of print 9 April. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2021.1934063.

22.

Dambo

Ersoy

Auwal

, et al. (2020) Nigeria’s #EndSARS movement and its implication on online protests in Africa’s most populous country. Journal of Public Affairs 1: e2583.

23.

Ekwunife

Oparah

Akpan

, et al. (2021) ENDSARS protest and centralised police system in Nigeria. In: Farazmand

(ed.) Global Encyclopaedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Cham: Springer Nature, pp.1–10.

24.

Ezeibe

Ilo

Oguonu

, et al. (2019) The impact of traffic sign deficit on road traffic accidents in Nigeria. International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion 26(1): 3–11.

25.

Ezeugwu

Omeje

Erojikwe

, et al. (2021) From stage to street: the #EndSARS protests and the prospects of street theatre. Ikenga Journal of African Studies 22(2): 127–145.

26.

George

(2020) The roots of the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria. The Washington Post, 25 October. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/25/roots-endsars-protests-nigeria/

27.

Global Economy (2020) Government effectiveness – country rankings. Available at: http://www.globaleconomy.com (accessed 30 August 2020).

28.

Heywood

(2007) Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

29.

Husted

(2020) Nigeria: #EndSARS Protest against Police Brutality. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service (CRS) Insight.

30.

Ibezim-Ohaeri

(2020) COVID-19 and the shrinking civic space in Nigeria. Just Security, 19 May. Available at: https://www.justsecurity.org/70226/covid-19-and-the-shrinking-civic-space-in-nigeria

31.

International Institute for Strategic Studies (2020) COVID-19 in Nigeria and South Africa. Strategic Comments 26(4): vii–ix.

32.

Iroulo

(2021) A Weapon of the Weak: Fighting Police Brutality through Social Media (GIGA Focus Afrika, 6). Hamburg: German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA).

33.

Iwuoha

(2019) Clash of counterterrorism-assistance-seeking states and their super power sponsors: implications on the war against Boko Haram. African Security Review 28(1): 38–55.

34.

Iwuoha

(2020) Cattle droppings litter our city roads: Herders’ encroachments, risk factors and roadmap for achieving sustainable development goals’. African and Asian Studies 19(4): 1–27.

35.

Iwuoha

Aniche

(2020) Covid-19 lockdown and physical distancing policies are elitist: towards an indigenous (Afro-centred) approach to containing the pandemic in sub-urban slums in Nigeria. Local Environment 25(8): 631–640.

36.

Iwuoha

Aniche

(2021) Protests and blood on the streets: repressive state, police brutality and #EndSARS protest in Nigeria. Security Journal. Epuba head print 22 September. DOI: 10.1057/s41284-021-00316-z.

37.

Iwuoha

Aniche

Ezirim

, et al. (2021) Impact of COVID-19 lockdown and social distancing policies on small businesses in south-eastern Nigeria: whither the stimulus packages? Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 29: 231–239.

38.

Kalu

(2017) State-society relations, institutional transformation and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Development Policy Review 35(1): 234–245.

39.

Kalu

(2018) Foreign Aid and Future of Africa. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

40.

Lagos State Government (2020) Government White Paper on the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the Report on Lekki Incident Investigation of 20Th October 2020. Ikeja, Nigeria: Lagos State Government.

41.

Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry Report (2021) Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and Other Matters. Report on Lekki Incident Investigation of 20th October 2020. Ikeja, Nigeria: Lagos State Government.

42.

Malena

(2015) Improving the Measurement of Civic Space. London: Open Society Foundation.

43.

Malumfashi

(2020) Nigeria’s SARS: a brief history of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Al Jazeera Media Network, 22 October. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/10/22/sars-a-brief-history-of-a-rogue-unit

44.

Margulies

(2018) The Conservation ideological state apparatus. Conservation & Society 16(2): 181–192.

45.

Nairametrics (2020) #EndSARS: a day by day timeline of the protest that has brought Nigeria to its knees. Nairametrics, 3 November. Available at: https://nairametrics.com/2020/10/25/endsars-protest-a-timeline-of-all-the-major-events-from-october-3rd/

46.

Nzarga

(2014) An analysis of human rights violation by the Nigerian security services. Journal of Law, Policy and Globalisation 30(1): 1–8.

47.

Ojedokun

Ogunleye

Aderinto

(2021) Mass mobilisation for police accountability: the case of Nigeria’s #EndSARS protest. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice 15(3): 1894–1903.

48.

Okanga

(2022) A law and politics contextualization of corporate activism in Nigeria’s 2020 anti-police brutality campaign. SN Social Science 2(30): 1–28.

49.

Tamuno

(1970) The Police in Modern Nigeria: 1861-1965. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University Press.

50.

Transparency International (2021) Corruption Perception Index. Berlin: Transparency International. Available at: http://transparency.org/cpi

51.

Uwazuruike

(2020) #EndSARS: the movement against police brutality in Nigeria. Harvard Human Rights Journal. Available at: https://harvardhrj.com/2020/11/endsars-the-movement-against-police-brutality-in-nigeria/

52.

Van Kesteren

(2019) Dealing with shrinking civic space: it is not just the state we have to worry about’ 2019. Available at: https://includeplatform.net/news/dealing-with-shrinking-civic-space-it-is-not-just-the-state-we-have-to-worry-about

53.

World Bank (2019a) Human Development Report. Washington, DC: World Bank Group.

54.

World Bank (2019b) Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). Washington, DC: World Bank Group.

55.

YIAGA Africa (2020) Weekly Updates on the #EndSARS Judicial Panels of Inquiry. Abuja, Nigeria: YIAGA Africa.

Beyond Police Brutality: Interrogating the Political,Economic and Social Undercurrents of the #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References