Memories of EndSars Protest should inspire us to birth a new Nigeria-Segun Showunmi
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
The Spokesman of Atiku Abubakar 2019 Presidential Campaign, Segun Showunmi has said that it was unfortunate the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to use the opportunities presented by the #EndSars protest of last year to reset the country for greater heights and good governance.
Segun Showunmi said that one year after this protest that unfortunately led to loss of lives and properties, the issue of good governance, police reforms among others as demanded for by the protesters who were mainly youths are still not being given adequate attention by the government.
In a statement made available to journalists at Abeokuta, the state capital on Wednesday, Showunmi said that while the nation should be thanking its star that the protest did not snowball into revolution like that of the Arab Springs of 2010 and the attendant consequences in the northern African countries, the leadership of the country must not allow the essence of the protest be lost or wished away.
The political activist said that there was no appropriate way to pay obeisance to the memories of all those who suffered, died, got injured or lost valuable properties during the protest than fixing all the issues of security, police reforms, philosophy of good governance, the concept of our nation-state among others.
He said “in all, we must never forget what happened and what could have gone wrong and what lessons we need to learn from a near meltdown, the type of which some other locations would have had gory tales of woes and scars to show for it. In all, as we say here, we thank God”.
Showunmi explained that “We however have to tell ourselves the damn honest truth. We seem not to have moved quickly with the opportunity that the youth agitation presented. When the youth of a nation pick up the courage to organise themselves in such a protest of that magnitude, leaders must answer transparently and deliberately the questions that their protests throw up.
“We are duty-bound to understand that failing to do what we need to do, we will pay very dearly given the youth bulge and the unemployment issues of our country
He said “as for the civil societies and the professional protestors, it’s time to review and rewrite the playbook, for we must move to a level of decent descent; otherwise, we will destroy all things that we have observed from areas where an unmanaged meltdown in the name of protest had destroyed things that will take a lifetime to build.
“Indeed a great revolution must and is a combination of micro evolutions. Baby steps in the right direction will give us much more than great giant leaps into chaos. May the memories and lessons of the Endsars protests inspire us to Reset Nigeria”.
