#EndSARS
As if 2020 hasn’t been a rough year for the United States as is, more news continues to unfold. We have battled hard times on our soil this year such as the Stock Market crash, Black Lives Matter movements and Coronavirus; however, there seems to be a civil war that isn’t happening on our side of the world.
For the past week, news has traveled to the United States about what’s happening in Nigeria. Nigerian singer/songwriter Tiwa Savage wanted to use her platform to call on Beyonce and her team to bring awareness to what is happening to her African people. Savage mentioned that Beyonce reached out to Nigerian artists, dancers, video directors, producers, and creatives in making Black Is King, The Gift album.
After that video surfaced, a lot of graphic footage of what is happening to Nigerians began to appear on all social media platforms. The ‘Special Anti Robbery Squad’ (SARS) was put in place to protect civilians from armed robbers. Instead, they torture, rape, harass, and kill the innocent youth. SARS operatives will make it their mission to stop you, go through your phone, and force you to withdraw money from the ATM while threatening to kill you. So far Nigerian youth began protesting and spreading awareness on October 8th.
Now, people all over the country are coming together to bring awareness and try to stop the madness that is happening in Nigeria. To live in a country where you have the right to protest, vote, and freedom of speech seems so small to you until you look at other people's lives and see the rights they don’t have. SARS was created to protect their people, now they are abusing their power on their own.
There are a few ways you can help end SARS. You can lend your voice online by using the hashtag #EndSARS on your different social media platforms. You can also head over to https://www.gofundme.com/f/sawubona-support-of-endsars and donate what you can to get them to their goal of $10,000. The funds will be used to provide ambulances, pay for hospital bills, and transport lawyers to police stations across the country to free wrongly arrested civilians and provide food and drink to protesters.
