EndSARS+ Data

The aim of this article is to educate people in the data community about the ongoing EndSARS protest in Nigeria. This link takes you to a dataset you can explore to lend your voice to the movement.

What is #EndSARS about?

Depending on what section of Twitter you belong to or what part of the world you live in, you may have come across the #EndSARS hashtag at some point in the last three weeks.

The EndSARS movement is a peaceful protest organized and carried out by Nigerian youths to demand an end to police brutality starting with the deadly SARS unit. It initially started as a Twitter campaign when the video of a young man allegedly shot dead by SARS officials went viral on social media.

Origin of SARS

The Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigerian Police Force was founded in 1992 with the aim of reducing the prevalence of armed robbery and kidnapping. The idea was that they would be armed without uniform in order to add an element of surprise.

Over the years this has backfired significantly and SARS officials have become the oppressors who abuse the basic human rights of Nigerian citizens especially the youth. SARS officials have been linked to various crimes including kidnap, rape, murder, blackmail & extortion.

The #EndSARS Protests in 2020

The most recent #EndSARS protests started off on the 8th of October and quickly gained momentum and transitioned into a nationwide peaceful protest across over 30 states starting with Lagos and Abuja. Nigerians in Diaspora also joined the movement by coming out en masse to protest against Police brutality. Multiple international influential people including Jack Dorsey, Beyonce, Rihana, Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden also lent their voices to the movement.

Feminist Coalition, a group of young Nigerian feminists has been at the forefront of the protest by raising over N140 million to sustain the protests and release arrested protesters in partnership with EndSARS Legal Aid.

What are people demanding now?

• For the Nigerian Government to #EndSARS completely
• Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensations for their families.
• Psychological evaluation and retaining of all disbanded SARS operatives before they can be deployed (this should be verified by an independent body).
• An independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reported police misconduct within a period of 10 days
• Increased police salaries and adequate compensation for protecting lives and property of Nigerians
• Complete reform of the Police

However, a lot has happened since the protest started on the 8th of October, 2020. Hundreds (possibly thousands) of protesters have been arrested by the police. Multiple people have been killed due to police shootings and sponsored thug violence. Businesses and malls have also been looted by thugs during the imposed curfew.

The Nigerian Government resorted to using different tactics to stop the protests and suppress voices instead of answering the requests of the protesters. Instead of ending SARS, they came up with a new unit called SWAT within a few days. There is also a rumored attempt to regulate social media to prevent this from happening again.

What’s next?

The Nigerian government has halted the street protests but conversations are still happening online. We will keep applying pressure on social media until the perpetrators are brought to book and victims receive justice.

How are we lending our voices?

We (Myself, Zainab and Simi) are sustaining the protests by collating this data set to encourage people in the data community to engage and create visualizations from their lens. This way, we will be able to keep the online conversation going and reach more people who have not heard about it.

Again you can access the dataset via this link and we’ll be on the lookout for how you choose to interpret this! You can use this hashtag #EndSARSViz and tag us on Twitter @thesqlbabe @zizzy_data @AbbyViz @WeVisualize

Abby