Nigerian Senator during the eighth National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, said Sunday on ARISE News that Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari would have been part of Nigerians protesting against police brutality if he wasn’t the president of the country.
“If President Buhari was not the country’s president, I know him too well, he will be out on the street protesting. We need more people to join this protest, those that are at home should join this protest,” Sani said.
The #EndSARS protests in Nigeria have been on for 11 days, with thousands of citizens demanding better governance and an end to police brutality and extra-judicial killings.
Sani believes the protests are beneficial for the country. “What you are seeing today is the greatest gift Nigeria will have for her 60th anniversary, and the protests should not stop.
“They should continue to protest until all their demands are met because the level of arrogance, of repression, the disconnect between the leaders and the led in Nigeria have reached such a dangerous level that people thought that because they had won elections they had the power and authority to do whatever they want,” Sani said.
Sani who is also an activist said the #EndSARS protest is not about piecemeal interventions and reforms by the executive.
“It is a revolutionary effect. Young people who are fed up with the system, fed up with the government and the kind of governance we have in Nigeria have decided upon themselves to take their future into their hands by trooping out to the streets and challenging the political tradition. They are telling those in authority that ‘you block our future we block the roads’ and that is the best way to go,” Sani said.
“What we are having here today is a section of the police, which is the SARS has constrained itself into an unproductive force, operating out of order, out of the law, unleashing terror and evil against innocent Nigerians.
“Now, Nigerians, particularly young people have stood up to their civil responsibility by challenging that order and without this protest and dissent, the federal government could not have thought of reforming the police or arresting those who are responsible for these tortures and bringing them to book.”
By Abel Ejikeme