National leader of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has appealed to #EndSARS protesters across the country to call off their protests and allow the federal government attend to their demands.
Tinubu in a statement, titled “#EndSARS Protests The Remedy for National Maladies is more, not less Democracy”, also asked his party to utilize the protest as an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and recommit itself to the values for which it was formed through extraordinary hard work, dedication and commitment.
The statement read: “For the past twelve days, our country has witnessed massive protests by youths in different cities, which were ignited by widespread disenchantment with the gross human rights abuses including torture, extortion, harassment, intimidation and even extra-judicial killings of Nigerians by members of the disbanded Special Anti-robbery Squad, SARS.
“The demands for fundamental police reforms by the protesting youths are in pursuit of our aspiration in our national anthem ‘to build a nation where peace and justice shall reign’. Justice as one of our greatest writers has memorably noted is “the first condition of humanity.
“A society where those who are paid from the public purse to protect the lives and property of the people become themselves threats to the liberty, safety and dignity of the people; where human life is difficult to distinguish from Thomas Hobbes ‘State of Nature – ‘solitary, poor, nasty and brutish’ is not one fit for free and decent people to live in.
“Such impunity and lawlessness are incompatible with the values and tenets of a democratic society governed by the supremacy of the rule of law. It is impossible for anyone truly committed to the rule of law, democracy and good governance to be opposed to the concern and demands of the protesters. ‘’There is no way that any society can make meaningful progress without the enthronement of these values. The protesters have for the better part of the commencement of their civil action conducted themselves with an admirable sense of responsibility, restraint and maturity.
“This is commendable. Indeed, the high level of organization demonstrated by the protesting youths shows a new level of consciousness of the capability of a vigilant civil society as well as the efficacy of people’s power. This can only ultimately strengthen the country’s democratic evolution and sustainability.
“Arnold Toynbee, the great 19th century historian observed that societies progress through a process of ‘challenge and response’. Society confronts challenges such as injustice, impunity, corruption, dictatorship and are forced to respond in resistance and struggle for emancipation.