In Nigeria, #EndSARS is now more than just a hastag

I had to think about it for a while but, yes, the #EndSARS protests,
simultaneously holding in many Nigerian cities since Friday are the country’s biggest rallies.

What is driving the protests?

Members of a sub-division of the Nigerian Police Force called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have been accused and convicted of every crime in the book. Torture, murder, extortion…

To understand the scale of the SARS problem: almost everyone in Nigeria has a SARS story. The #EndSARS hashtag on Twitter has been used to highlight run-ins with the unit over the years.

To make these incidents more visible, a website is now documenting some of these experiences.

What we’re learning from Nigeria’s protests

According to one Twitter user, “this protest has been organized, funded and powered by Joe Q. Public.”

Nigerians have learned from the past. In previous protests, it was not unusual to find a few protest leaders or organizers. But this weekend’s protests have been decentralized. Nigerians in different cities are coming together as separate units to organise and fund the protests.
This way, no one person or group can hijack the
protests for selfish purposes.

Social media has played a big role in the protests, helping to show people where they can join protests and helping to spread the message beyond Nigeria.

It has forced the hand of the government. Yesterday, the country’s Inspector-General of Police announced that SARS will now be disbanded.

This isn’t victory yet

Nigerians say that despite the Inspector-General’s announcement, the protests aren’t over. Protesters say they want justice, and for SARS operatives to go through evaluation before they’re allowed back into the police force.

The complaints about SARS have
gone on for so long that no one wants half measures. The protests will go on and our reporting on the issue will continue.

Here’s some of our coverage of the protests so far:

• I reported live from the protests at the Lagos state House of Assembly on Friday
• Kay wrote this delightful article
  on how we went from Twitter fingers to Twitter warriors
• Alex also did his thing with some great reporting on the rogue unit we’re all protesting

Some context

In 2019 alone, 220,000 bank account holders (3% of bank users in Kenya) reported losing money from their accounts.

People have even shared incidents where their accounts were wiped clean by fraudsters.

Many victims of bank fraud often blame the bank. The feeling among many people is that banks aren’t doing enough to put off fraudsters.

How do most of these scams happen?

One publication says that the common thread in many of these scams is social engineering. A lot of people are tricked into giving their confidential information to fraudsters because they don’t know better.

In some other cases, some fraudsters collude with bank staff to pull off some of the scams.

But the nature of these scams show that banks could do a lot better to protect their customers.

It all comes down to banks

One thing is clear: banks need to educate customers better on what kinds of information they should not disclose. People should not learn the risks of disclosing private information only when they have been defrauded.

Beyond broad statements like this, one study also recommends that:

• Banks need to do audits more frequently
• There should be more audits on risk assessment in internal control processes