BY CHRIS GYANG

It’s no surprise that patriotic citizens and groups that supported the #ENDSARS protests are now being singled out for undue persecution in Nigeria and abroad.

Human rights activist and lawyer, Femi Falana, is the latest victim who has been dragged before the International Criminal Court at The Hague by a representative of an amorphous body which intentions are obviously meant to dishonour him before the global community – in the interest of Nigeria’s government.

Even popular musicians, clerics and other human rights activists who lent their voices to a cause aimed at ending impunity, sheer lawlessness and misgovernance are now being unduly dragged before the nation’s legal institutions by obviously paid agents of the state. To be sure, this is also at the instance of the Buhari administration.

Many other such voices that also boldly and courageously used that opportunity to tell the powers that be that restructuring the country is long overdue are now being unduly haunded by these same state players.

Obviously, the Buhari government and its agents in states and elsewhere are bent on silencing these voices so as to erase the historicity and impact of the #ENDSARS protests.

But, fortunately, the voices inherent in those protests resonated with the majority of the suffering masses of Nigeria in the about two weeks they lasted. Buhari’s fear is the aftermath, which he is feverishly struggling to obliterate.

Nevertheless, and most significantly, the entire world came to know that, indeed, something was fundamentally amiss with the Nigerian state as presently constituted – which needs to be very urgently mended, if the country must survive.

This is the takeaway from the outcome of the #ENDSARS protests that the Buhari government and its agents cannot easily obliterate through paid agents in Nigeria and all over the world.

Doubtlessly, those protests planted an accorn which shall surely sprout – if not today, surely tomorrow. The indomitable spirit of Nigeria’s fearless youth is continually watering that accorn.

Last lines: If Buhari and his discredited government feel that they are right in prosecuting these artists, human rights activists and such other patriotic Nigerians that supported the protests, an independent poll should be conducted to see which of the two sides can win the support of the majority of Nigerians. Evil, deception and sophistry have expiration dates.

But the spirit of Nigeria’s millennials and patriots who support them shall ever remain verdant, green and white – the colours of our national flag.

We rest our case.

(chrisgyang01@gmail.com)

count | 109

ENDSARS: THE UNDUE BACKLASH AGAINST MUSIC ICONS, FALANA AND OTHER PATRIOTS