Baba Aye's

Angry youths took over the streets in cities and towns across Nigeria in October, calling for disbandment of the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force, whose operatives were trained and supplied equipment by the British government from 2016 to 2020. The largely peaceful protests were drowned in blood on Tuesday 20th October. In the wake of the massacre, there were violent clashes with scores of police stations torched, several jailbreaks and a festival of ‘looting’. The restoration of law and order in the dying days of the month might however not translate into a restoration of the pre-EndSARS normality in the country. SARS was established in 1992. Its plainclothes operatives were meant to infiltrate robbery gangs to nip their operations in the bud. By the turn of the century they started apprehending online scammers as cybercrime became common.  Young men with tattoos or dreadlocks automatically became ‘419’ (online scam) suspects. Having an iPhon...

Response to Osaze Lanre Nosaze's open letter It is quite unfortunate that not once in the 4,407 words of Osaze’s letter is there even the slightest mention of the defining issue of today i.e. the COVID19 pandemic. It shows how disconnected from changing the world his penchant for interpreting it is.* Anyway, I have neither the time nor the disposition for a long-drawn response, for the moment at least. But there are some outright distortions that need to be clarified and a few issues which I will summarily put in perspective regarding the claims and accusations made in his open letter. 1.        On “our phone discussion” and related matters -           Osaze claims that I or as he puts it, the SWL merely “wanted a CORE meeting held where the question of developing a programme for the organisation would be finalised and an expanded leadership established”. This is a half-truth.  -    ...

The Great Anti-SAP Revolts and thereinafter 1989 was one of those years that represent a turning point in history. A wind of mass anger threw away authoritarian regimes behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, students took over Tiananmen Square in China, the Berlin Wall fell paving the way towards German re-unification. And in Nigeria, there was a mass upsurge like none other since 1 October 1960. This was a revolt against the structural adjustment programme and the legendary spate of corruption of the General Ibrahim Babangida-led junta, in the midst of rising poverty. From 24 May, all hell was let loose for almost two weeks. Students ignited a wildfire of action, with the first spark struck at Benin, where Uniben students took to the streets. This immediately spread to Ibadan and then Ilorin, where activist students mobilised thousands of students from UI and Unilorin (and Kwara Poly) respectively on to the streets. They were joined in no time by other angry youths. Ea...