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Where is the #EndSARS Movement Now?
Long live the hashtag that has travelled faster than any official statement ever could
Sometimes it feels like everybody has moved on.
We remember every October 20 as the day of reckoning, a good look on our social media feeds, but when the date passes, we carry along with life. But such is life, and life did a number on over 51 civilians in the year 2020. I keep asking myself, was #EndSARS a movement meant to change the structure of governance, or has it slowly been reduced to a yearly act of remembrance?
What began as a renewed call to end the abuses of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad became a nationwide uprising against police brutality, impunity, and bad governance. The movement lived online and on the streets at the same time, carried by people who were tired of being brutalised and then told to be patient.
For years before that moment, stories of SARS officers extorting, torturing, and killing young people had circulated quietly. Suddenly, millions were watching in real time as Nigerians document their own suffering. The hashtag travelled faster than any official statement ever could. Funds were raised openly to support legal aid, medical care, and logistics, and for once, civic power felt visible.
