SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND THE 2020 #ENDSARs PROTESTS IN IBADAN METROPOLIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR PEACEBUILDING

Abstract

Prior to the 2020 #EndSARs protests in Nigeria, various degrees of human rights abuses and impunity against the youths by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit of the Nigeria Police Force were rampant in the country, with virtually no SARS’ officer facing prosecution for violating the law. Consequently, in October 2020, there was an eruption of the #EndSARs protests by the youths in Nigeria, especially in the southern part of the country against the SARS over the gruesome murder of a young man in Ughelli, Delta State. While studies have blamed the 2020 #EndSARs protests on the abuses of the youths’ rights by the officers of the defunct SARS, scarcely has any study looked in the direction of the prevailing social inequality at the time as a remote precursor to the protests, particularly in Ibadan, where this paper is centred. This paper therefore, examines social inequality as a precipitating remote factor for the 2020 #EndSARs protest in Ibadan Metropolis. The paper is theoretical in approach hence, secondary sources of data (i.e. published articles, textbooks, reports, the internet, etc.) were utilized, content-analysed and deductions drawn. Findings implicated the prevailing social inequality in Ibadan at the time as largely responsible for the 2020 #EndSARs protest in Ibadan Metropolis, notwithstanding its purported immediate trigger – rights abuses by the Police. It is therefore, recommended among others, that the Oyo state government should make concerted efforts in containing the high rates of unemployment, underemployment and poverty driving social inequality among the youths in the state.