By the end of the Month we would have successfully ran the #EndSARS #ReformPoliceNG Movement for a year on personal funds despite the pressure from major political aspirants to support, which was respectfully declined lest they ruin our approach with their control. We won’t want this to be politicized, derailed or demeaned by antics that are familiar and can easily be replicated in a counter by those protecting their interest.
We will at this point be preparing the report which will be made public to measure and celebrate our milestones. Our data mining team, Legal Team (Citizens Gavel) and Civil Liberties Organisation Heads as well as Tech hubs working on digital solutions have all done well in harmony towards the cause.
There is a lot we can learn from the data mined thus far cum the interventions. The NASS will surely respond upon resumption with the Police Act amendment Bill and also the commencement of the Public hearing on human rights abuses by Police/SARS in collaboration with National Human Rights Commission.
On the civil side we are filing a class action suit of N100Billion against the Nigeria Police and also a Law Suit at International Criminal Court on Terrorism on the defenseless youth of Nigeria by the Police as guaranteed by Article 15 of the ICC Statute which allows citizens to refer cases to the ICC, where the state is UNWILLING or UNABLE to take action.
There are many more things we will like to flag off like citizens/victim support Online hubs cum an international online law library access for our teeming Pro-Bono Lawyers across Nigeria. Again, this is more about the reformation of our criminal justice system (beginning with the sanitation of the Police structure through the needed reform and the severance of the dastardly Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) which has since become a metastasized cancer within the Police conundrum.
#EndSARS remains a critical objective and #ReformPoliceNG an end goal for the Police angle of the projection before shifting focus to the Judiciary and Prisons.
The initiative was carved out of our firm’s (Aliensmedia) Corporate Social Responsibility core program on Universal Institutional Reforms Advocacy. Tailored towards helping the country to strengthen its institutions across spectrum. Our business as a firm of consultants, is mostly with HIgh Net-Worth Individuals and the only way we can contribute to society is to do something that benefits society from the policy angle since we don’t have lobbyists in Nigeria. We realize how much more we can achieve with collaborative and strategic partnerships.
The orderly transfer of authority as called for by constitution however mundane it may seem to some, is more of a miracle when it happens peacefully, thus maintaining a continuity of government which is the Bulwark of our Republic. The business of nationhood must go forward. For decades we have piling deficit upon deficits mortgaging our future and those of our children for the temporary convenience of the present. If individuals cannot continue to live beyond their means by borrowing, why then should we think collectively as a nation we are not bound by the same rule?
We all deserve a chance at the crack of the whip but we are quick to make the same mistake of blaming society forgetting we are indeed society. Bring a Fish out of water and you have determined its survival, pluck a flower off a plant and you have severed it from its source of burgeoning. Isolate a man from his society and you create a primitive homo erectus vertebrae incapable of deep rational thoughts of the relationship and importance of the collective but one who perpetually ingratiates towards devices of self preservation.
We pretty much treat everything we achieve as personal forgetting they are merely means to an end. Your education for instance is not a mere opportunity at procuring a societal bragging right but an avenue to close the gap between the “Town and the Gown”. Our enlightenment ought to better society and promote unity within our communities and not qualify us to become rubber stamps for the atrocities of the corrupt ruling elites.
The #Brexit is yet another abrupt decision made based on discontent (Economic Inequality) but the consequences are ominous. Nigerians once claimed to have voted out their leader based on the desire for change and we all can see where that got us. The impact of the decision however is instructive on immigration and other complications.
For us in Africa, it is a benchmark for referendums to come based on pre-existing agitations for autonomous regions which seem to be the only solution to the myriad of complications buffeting us as a people.
Discontent may be the beginning of a rethink but we must not base our actions just on discontent without strategic reasoning towards how things would be harmonized differently without plunging ourselves into further chaos.
The key drivers of the #EndSARS #ReformPoliceNG Movement, which sets it apart from any other Advocacies in the history of Nigeria are:
- Articulation of a clearly defined common interest which allows people to work together. The necessity for unification even if that unification is temporary, was made evident to all stakeholders and was (as a must) accompanied by a sense of urgency which impels people to reach out to others in their community and spread the idea.
- A clear vision of what we are working towards. What are we going to replace the current system with? (In the case of universal Institutional Reforms) Ironing out the fine details wasn’t actually productive. What was needed was a broad and abstract vision based on principles. The human society is extreme and abrupt changes are usually destructive. All efforts was made to attain social stability, (creating succor for free without dependence on the power blocs) that means steering clear of all utopian vanities. We learnt that the time to rewire humanity is not during the period of crisis. Historically such attempts usually ends in tragedy.
- Plan Of Action and a clear understanding of the rules of engagement
These to us collectively stood as our 10 commandments or the conscious revolution paradigm, admonishing that all actions must be clearly thought out across the starfish organisation. The idea was kept simple because very simple ideas can be transmitted from person to person without breaking it down. Nothing was programmed to be forced.
We recognized that there is a great need to enlighten the public consistently galvanizing transformational leaders (mostly civil liberties organisation leaders) and enlightened followers who eventually will be easy to govern, difficult to rule, and impossible to enslave.
This for obvious reasons is largely because they have recognized their role in the polity viz-a-viz the fact fact that they are society. They have mastered the differences between leadership and rulership and what belongs in a democracy and what shouldn’t be allowed to continue.
Due to the ease and simplicity of the message and variable growth of the movement, people are quick to assume this was just one of those happenstances. So they jump into conclusions and suggests solutions based on opinions which are only as good as the foundations upon which they were forged. This to us is decided as a corky approach to the want of inclusion so we accommodate them and give them the attention and warmth they need till they are baptized enough to see Mountains as Mountains and Rivers as Rivers.
Thus, our common interest is the world that we are leaving our children, the society and legacy we hope to bequeath to generations to come.
