#EndSARS: Buhari Would Not Allow Hoodlums Burn Down Nigeria – Femi Adesina

Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, has insisted that his principal would not allow rampaging hoodlums to burn down Nigeria.

Adesina, in a piece on Friday titled, ‘We Have Not Many Fathers’, said Buhari acted with restraint typical of a father during the #EndSARS protest that rocked most part of the country.

According to the presidential spokesperson, the #EndSARS protest was prolonged, and eventually hijacked and misdirected” despite Buhari quickly accepting the five-point demands of the protesters.

He claimed that had President Buhari not exercised the tolerance of a father, “we would have been talking of something else in the country”.

Femi Adesina wrote: “All through the EndSARS protest and the riots, mayhem and looting that followed, President Buhari acted like a father. And though we have millions of instructors in this country, we have not many fathers. President Buhari is one.

“The President is by no means a soft man. We remember the man of iron and steel that ruled with iron fist between January 1984 and August 1985, with his kindred spirit, Babatunde Idiagbon. They attempted to knock sense into our heads as Nigerians, but were eventually toppled by people who had less patience for discipline.

“Is President Buhari as hard as he was in 1984? Yes and no. In personal traits and attributes, he remains the unbending iron. But in terms of administration and response to people and situations, he is tempered by democracy, and by time. What he could do by military fiat then, he must pass through democratic due process now.

“If President Buhari hadn’t exercised the restraint and tolerance of a father, at a time that even hitherto respected people instigated the protesters to carry on (and they promptly went underground when anarchy ensued), we would have been talking of something else in the country. The rivers of Nigeria could have turned crimson, and mourning and lamentations would have suffused the land. But we are thankful for the father in President Buhari, patient and enduring, almost to a fault.”

Naija News recalls that protesting youths in Nigeria agitating for the end to police brutalization and extrajudicial killings of Nigerians had stormed the streets, protesting the brutalities, humiliation, and extortion of Nigerians, especially the youths.

The protesters demanded an end to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department headed by the Deputy Inspector General of Police Anthony Ogbizi, using a hashtag: #EndSARS.

On Sunday, October 11, 2020, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, disbanded SARS following a widespread protest from Nigerians worldwide. However, since the announcement that SARS has been scrapped, the protesters refused to leave the streets, this resulted in the declaration of a curfew by the Lagos government.

Following the curfew, soldiers of the Nigerian Army invaded a peaceful protest at Lekki toll gate on Tuesday evening, October 20, killing #EndSARS protesters in the process.

But the army who initially denied involvement in the Lekki shootings, later disclosed that its officers were invited by the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to enforce a curfew imposed on the state last Tuesday.

The chaos that resulted following the shooting by soldiers of the Nigeria Army gave hoodlums the need grounds to perpetrate looting and burning of public and private buildings.