The just-concluded #Endsars protest has always been portrayed as a leaderless protest against Sars/Police brutality. The protest was dominated by mainly the youths in their 20s and 30s’). Two popular Nigerian music stars, “Folarin Falana, better known as Falzthebahdguy and Douglas Jack Agu, also known as Rundown, started this fantastic campaign on 8 October 2020.”
Falz who has always been regarded as an activist and portrays this clearly in his music lyrics had no hesitation to launch a peaceful demonstration with a petition to the government on 8 October with 5 requests.
He said in his interview with Arise News that he did not expect the turn-out for the rally to be much, he expected only 100s of people to turn out at the meeting place and to his surprise that day, he saw over 2000 young people out there and this showed how exhausted Nigerian Youths are.
It is fair to say that Falz and Runtown championed the campaign that spread like wildfire across about 19 states in Nigeria and even the Diasporas were not left out (Canada, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, UK, USA), despite how often protesters insisted that they have no representative representing them for the revolt.
On October 15, 2020, Falz enlightened young people about the human rights commission that he tagged via Instagram Knowledge is Power. He says” Human Rights Commission is actually charged with the responsibility of handling cases of human rights violation and ensuring the prosecution of offenders. Now, this is the same human right commission that the federal government has asked to set up another panel to perform its functions. Do you also know that the human right commission has remained without a governing council since 2015 and by law without this council, the human right commission cannot perform its functions? Is it that they don’t know or they don’t care about our human rights? Do you also know there is something called a police trust fund? In this police trust fund, 0.5% of the total money in the federation account is meant to go to the police, 0.5% of the total net profit of all companies; operating businesses in Nigeria is meant to go into the police trust fund. Where is the police trust fund? Police are not being paid well, their cars are not road-worthy, police have to convert exhibit for their personal use in the office etc. It is disgraceful! We have to start holding people accountable and that’s the only way we would be able to move forward”.
On October 17, Falz again took to Instagram to encourage the Youth of Nigeria to continue the protest in solidarity and further confirmed the status of the Youth to have no leader. In his words, “They are trying their best to divide us but it’s not possible. We are united and I’ve never seen us as united as this and we have to stay this way. I want us to have one voice and focus on our 5 points Agenda. At least they said President has accepted our 5 point agenda, let’s focus on that. How many boxes have they ticked and they are actively asking who’s the leader? We have no leader, he emphasized. You know what to do if you want us off the street!! Let’s make sure they tick all 5 boxes and not leave anyone out then we can face the next one, is it the national assembly, then let’s Go! We’re ready! We’re widely awake now but very importantly, we have to stay together, we have to stay united in one voice”.
Also, on October 20, 2020, Falz implored all young people to remain safe rather than losing more lives, in the light of all the thuggery going on and the curfew enforced in Lagos State. He said “We will continue to reiterate that the movement started as a peaceful protest and we have continued to protest peacefully all around the country. All attempts to discredit our cause will not be tolerated. #End sars protesters have not and will never perpetrate any form of violence”.
Despite how leaderless, the protest may be, Falz’s influence and impart, can not be overemphasized when he has already shown all of a Leader’s characteristics, like accountability, empathy, communication, courage, ability to delegate, and openness. We wouldn’t be mistaken to say that Falz represented all of Nigeria‘s youth intensely with his full chest. A hero!
– Ogundeji Oluwatobiloba
