INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE MOBILIZATION OF YOUTHS FOR THE ENDSARS PROTEST

Abstract

This study was on influence of social media in the mobilization of youths for the ENDSARS protest. Three objectives were raised which included: Find out how social media contributed to the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria, to ascertain if social media played a significant role in mobilizing youth for the Endsars protest in Nigeria, to examine the influence of social media in mobilizing youth for Endsars protest, to investigate how social media particularly Facebook was used to mobilise youth for Endsars protest and to study whether the Freedom of Information Act empowered social media users to criticize abuse of power. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from students of University of Uyo. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).

Chapter one

Introduction

1.1Background of the study

Police brutality or excessive use of force by law enforcement can be legally defined as a civil rights violation, where law enforcement officers exercise due force against a subject. The use of torture as an interrogative technique and other wanton abuses of human rights remain some of the major flaws of the Nigeria Police Force which has attracted public odium, opprobrium, and condemnation to the Force, adding that is one of the most extreme forms of violence,  resulting to both  psyc0hological and physical consequences is sometimes considered as an indispensable interrogation mechanism for gathering strategic intelligence (Soladoye & Ojo, 2021). Worried by the incessant reports of human rights abuse of the members of the Police Force, the Former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, once warned the Special Anti-Robbery Squad operatives against torture and extrajudicial killings,  saying  “no policeman in the world had the right or authority to kill crime suspects”. He admonished the SARS personnel to always respect the right of every Nigerian, noting that this was the way they could change the negative public perception about them. Protests against police brutality previously have arisen in Nigeria, as advocates and researchers have documented extensive evidence of human rights abuses by SARS officers and other NPF personnel.      

            For any country to quell mostly internal insurrection, aggression, and combat crime as well as maintain peace and protect lives and properties of the citizens, there is a need for the establishment of the security department whose personnel execute their functions not arbitrarily to the laws of the country but with severe adherence to rules and constitutional provisions of the country. This need in Nigeria led to the establishment of SARS.

            The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was founded in late 1992 by former police commissioner Simeon Danladi Midenda when Col. Rindam of the Nigerian Army was killed by police officers at a checkpoint in Lagos in September 1992, later leading to the arrest of three officers. When the information reached the army, soldiers were dispatched into the streets of Lagos in search of any police officer. The Nigerian police withdrew from checkpoints, security areas, and other points of interest for criminals; some police officers were said to have resigned while others fled for their lives. Due to the absence of police for two weeks, the crime rate increased and SARS was formed with only 15 officers operating in the shadows without knowledge of the army while monitoring police radio chatters. Due to the existence of three already established anti-robbery squads that were operational at that time, Midenda needed to distinguish his squad from the already existing teams. Midenda named his team Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). After months of dialogue, the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force came to an understanding and official police duties began again in Lagos. The SARS unit was officially commissioned in Lagos following a ceasefire by the army after settlement and was one of the 14 units in the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, which was established to detain, investigate, and prosecute people involved in crimes like armed robbery, kidnapping, and other violent crimes.

            With the way that the world has been made a global village where information about countries, their activities and that of their officials are easily accessed anywhere in the world on the internet through the mass media made people to easily criticize activities and actions of the government when they are not pleased with it. Information is now at the tip of the people’s finger which has helped the public not to be eluded with the happenings around them.

            The advent of the internet in the 1990s led to major developments in the world of communication. Today the Internet has taken a firm place in people’s lives. It is difficult to imagine a young man who at least once a day did not check for updates in social networks and did not leaf through the news lines. Modern reality requires us to stay in touch and keep abreast of the recent happenings around the globe. Social Media are interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. There is no doubt the emergence of the internet has immensely contributed to the introduction of social networking sites (SNSS). The coming into being of these sites revolutionized the world of communication and today we celebrate its improvement ranging from education to entertainment.  A recent study has shown The evolution of the internet has led to its usage as the best of communication whereby two-thirds (2/3) of the internet world‘s population visit social networking sites (SNSs) thus serving as communication and connection tools. These networking sites are referred to as social media (Boyd and Ellison, 2007).

            Social networking has become a common international trend that has spread its reach to almost every corner of the world. The use of Social media sites has exploded and evolved into an online platform where people create content, share it, bookmark it and network at a prodigious rate.

            Online technologies have continued to erase the line between the traditional media and their audience. This significant success has been facilitated by the two-way communication system which social media provides than the one-way broadcast method of traditional media. Social media have given masses a voice that the traditional media though committed to achieving has not yet totally achieved. With the continuous improvements in information and communication technologies and increasing possibilities for ubiquitous internet connectivity, more freedom is anticipated for using social media whenever and wherever one wants. Relating to freedom, and as indicated by Nielsen (2012) cited in (Adeagbo, 2013), social media (appearing in the form of MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Mebo, Twitter and others) continue to alter the way in which humans access, generate, share and use information (Cabral, 2011). With the possibility for more freedom (i.e. of connectivity and access) regarding networking online anywhere and at any time, it is not difficult to note that social media use will remain a regular aspect of humans everyday life since it facilitates speedy information dissemination around the world. It is against this background that the study investigated the influence of social media in mobilizing youth for Endsars protest with a specific focus on Lagos State University students.

1.2       Statement of the problem

            One of the events that accompanied the later part of the year 2020 after the covid 19 pandemic and the enactment of the company and allied matters act (CAMA 2020) by the President of the federal republic of Nigeria is the uproar in the country by the citizens on the EndSARS protest. EndSARS (or #EndSARS) is a decentralised social movement against police brutality in Nigeria. It was a call for the federal government of Nigeria to scrap the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a controversial unit of the Nigerian Police with a long record of abuses. The protests started in 2017 as a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #ENDSARS to demand the Nigerian government eliminate the force which after experiencing a revitalization in October 2020, mass demonstrations were occurring throughout Nigeria in major cities, and the hashtag has had over 28 million tweets. Nigerians have shared their experiences and video evidence of how members of SARS engaged in kidnapping, murder, theft, rape, torture, unlawful arrests, humiliation, unlawful detention, extrajudicial killings, and extortion in Nigeria all over the internet and social media. SARS officers have been alleged to profile youths based on fashion choices, mount illegal roadblocks and searches, conduct unwarranted temperature checks, arrest without warrant, rape women, and extort young Nigerians for driving exotic vehicles and using laptops and iPhones.

            All this uproar has led to killings of protesters, burning and destruction of public and private properties in the country. As the protest was at its peak of it, the Nigerian government on Sunday, 11th October 2020 announced it was dissolving SARS and to carry out a reformation of the police force to serve the citizens better. This study, therefore, seeks to ascertain the influence of social media in mobilizing youth for the Endsars protest with a specific focus on Lagos State University students.

1.3       Objective of the study

The primary aim of this study is to find out the influence of social media in mobilizing youth for the Endsars protest with a specific focus on Lagos State University students. Specifically, the study seeks to:

1. Find out how social media contributed to the 2020 EndSARS protest in Nigeria.
2. To ascertain if social media played a significant role in mobilizing youth for the Endsars protest in Nigeria.
3. To examine the influence of social media in mobilizing youth for Endsars protest
4. To investigate how social media particularly Facebook was used to mobilise youth for Endsars protest.
5. To study whether the Freedom of Information Act empowered social media users to criticize abuse of power

Research Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses were formulated:

H0: social media do not played a significant role in mobilizing youth for the Endsars protest in Nigeria

H1: social media played a significant role in mobilizing youth for the Endsars protest in Nigeria

H0: there is no influence of social media in mobilizing youth for Endsars protest

H2: there is influence of social media in mobilizing youth for Endsars protest

1.5       Significance of the study

            This study will help government and policymakers align and realign laws and policies to fit into the demand of the populace to create an environment that will promote and protect the rights of the citizens, rule of law, protection of lives and properties as stated as the major function of the security personnel and restrict the abuse of power of security personnel in the country.

            Scholars have written on the role of mass media on public opinion, yet only a few have written on how social media influences opinion formation such as how social media was used to mobilize youth for protest.

            Corporate bodies such as the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, CDHR and youth groups and students will through the research know how best to utilize social media for public opinion and agenda-setting.

            Similarly, the findings of this study will serve as additional literature on the topic for students and researchers who will like to carry out similar research while, the material will form bulk literature that exists in the field of mass communication, journalism, development journalism and media studies, etc

1.6       Scope of the study

            The study of which influence of social media in mobilizing youth for Endsars protest has been narrowed in scope to Lagos State University students. Thus, the geographical scope of this study was within Lagos state. The choice of Lagos State University students was not only due to the proximity to the researcher, inadequate time to study all students in Lagos but because the location was actually affected by the protest and causality among other logistics.

            Also, the demographic factors of the respondents will be carefully studied before the administration of research instruments such factors include: age, gender, academic level e.t.c.

1.7       Operational Definition of terms

Social media: Social media are forms of electronic communication that facilitate interactive social networking base on certain interests. Social media include web and mobile technology. It is a group of internet-based applications that builds on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Internet: The Internet can be defined as interconnected computer networks that use the standard internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks that range from local to global scope that is linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies.

Media: media are all those media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. They are messages communicated through a mass medium to a number of people.  According to “Wikipedia” Media are the communication outlets or tools used to store and deliver information or data. The term refers to components of the mass media communications industry, such as print media, publishing, news media, photography, cinema, broadcasting, and advertising.

Reformation: making changes to something with the intention of setting it back on the right path.

SARS: The Special Anti-Robbery Squad was a Nigerian Police Force unit created to deal with crimes associated with robbery, motor vehicle theft, kidnapping, cattle rustling, and firearms. Protest: a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something.

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