THURSDAY, 21st October, 2021: Bello Shagari, a grandson of the late former President Shehu Shagari, has called out many youths, by stating that many of them who identify with the #EndSARS protest are doing so because it has become fashionable.
He stated this in a post on Facebook after a protest tagged #EndSARSMemorial was held across major cities yesterday in honour of those believed to have died when armed soldiers dispersed #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos last year.
The #EndSARS is a campaign against police brutality which metamorphosed into a call for an end to bad governance when youths took to the streets in different cities across the country last year October.
Reacting to the memorial protest, Bello in a post on Facebook stated that many of the #EndSARS protesters have very little understanding of how the socio-political system works.
He said, “A lot of the young people who identify with the #EndSARS protest are doing so because it has become fashionable. It has become a thing of show off; that everyone is now an activist. Whereas most of them have little understanding of the socio-political system.
“However, my advice has always been that we should not focus too much in protests when we can do better by mobilising young peoples’ votes to achieve a change in the entire political system, or to change our present realities, or at least to be in charge of them.
“We must adopt a more progressive and strategic approach rather than the usual disruptive one which hasn’t yielded any meaningful results. You can’t be doing the same thing and expect a different result.
“Use the same energy and reinforce it into a political power at the polls.”