 |
CCS Webinar: The Future of Effective Movements: Lessons from Nigeria's #EndSARS Protest |
 |
 |
 Speaker: Fisayo Soyombo
Date: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Time: 16:00-17:00 SA Time
Facilitators: Andries Motau & Danford Chibvongodze
Date: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Time: 16:00-17:00 SA Time
Zoom Link: https://ukzn.zoom.us/j/98897369426
Topic: The hashtag EndSARS protests emanated from a viral video that allegedly showed SARS officers killing a young man on the 8th of October 2020. The federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has long been accused of torture, extrajudicial killings and unlawful arrests which dates back to 2017. On the 20th of October 2020 young Nigerians mobilised on social media and staged large demonstrations calling for the end of police brutality from SARS in which 12 protesters were killed by the Nigerian army and police (Amnesty International, 2021). Throughout the demonstrations 56 protesters were killed by excessive use of force by the police and army leading to protests in several cities across the world (Aljazeera, 2020). The #EndSARS protests have forced Nigerian authorities to disband the SARS. In this webinar, Fisayo Soyombo examines how effective the #EndSARS protests have been in mobilising the young people of Nigeria to fight against police brutality and violence and call for policing reform. Further, Fisayo explores some of the lessons that can be drawn from the Nigerian protests, particularly on how social media platforms facilitate global solidarity for any campaign that upholds human rights and social justice.
Speaker Bio: Fisayo Soyombo is best remembered as the Nigerian journalist who spent five days in a police cell as a suspect and eight as an inmate in Ikoyi Prison — to track corruption in Nigeria’s criminal justice system, after which the authorities contemplated arresting him, or the journalist who drove the equivalent of a stolen vehicle from Abuja to Lagos, passing through a whopping 86 checkpoints in a journey of over 1,600km that lasted a cumulative 28hours 17minutes. Before then, though, he had investigated the abandonment of soldiers injured in battle against Boko Haram, corruption in the handling of corpses at government-run mortuaries and cemeteries, theft of foodstuffs at NEMA stores and IDP camps in Borno, the plunder of Ebola funds in Liberia, corruption by men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at Apapa Port, the travails of cancer patients undergoing treatment at government-owned hospitals, the extortion of national ID card-seeking members of the public by NIMC officials, and, way back in 2013, the brutality of ethnocentric killings in Plateau State. His brand of investigative reporting has won him multiple awards: in 2016 alone, he was finalist, Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism; winner, Maritime Economy category, African Media Initiative awards; winner, overall prize, Wole Soyinka Award for Investigative Reporting; winner, Hans Verploeg Newcomer of the Year category, Free Press Awards, Netherlands; and winner, Journalist of the Year (Business and Economy Reporting), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Journalism Excellence Awards and the Gatefield’s inaugural People Journalism Prize for Africa (PJPA) among others.
|
|
|
|
