As the EndSARS protests continue to escalate across the country, Nigerians have dug up a statement President Muhammadu Buhari made while in the opposition five years ago, asking the youths to make leaders be afraid of them.
Buhari had made the statement in a series of tweets in 2015, charging the youths to show the government that they cannot be taken for granted.
President Buhari made the statement at 11:03 pm on March 26, 2015, less than 48 hours to the presidential election that saw him defeat the then incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan.
The president had said if the citizens wanted the “damage” being done by the Jonathan administration to stop, “this is the time to tell your leaders that they need to be afraid of you.”
Buhari added that, “this is the time to show that you won’t be taken for granted, this is the time to show the present crop that if they fail, they will be punished.”
The president went further to say, “So, today, let me make you a promise that will not be broken.
“The reason we are doing this is clear. This is about creating a Nigeria where you and your father and your mother and your children can be safe, this is about creating a nation where children can go to schools where they actually learn and can compete in the world…”
But in view of recent allegations of worsening extra-judicial killings by police and general insecurity in the country, Buhari’s 2015 pre-election tweets about keeping the citizens safe have now been brought to the fore.
Although the federal government had granted the citizens’ request by ordering the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police, the youths have continued to protest against “bad governance” while simultaneously using the #EndSARS and #EndBadGovernance hashtags to create global awareness about the campaign.
In an apparent bid to quell the protesters, the Nigerian Army had announced what it called “cyberwarfare operation” under the banner of its “Exercise Crocodile Smile”.
The Army had said the operation was “deliberately” designed to address cyberwarfare activities and to, “identify, track and counter negative propaganda in the social media and across the cyberspace”.
It said, “This is the first-ever cyber warfare to be conducted in the history of the African armed forces; that will also improve Nigeria army’s capacity and resilience against hostile cyber acts in defence of our national security and critical national infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, below are some of the reactions in 2020 to President Buhari’s statement.
