Six years ago today, on 20 October 2020, soldiers opened fire on young people gathered at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos. They were waving Nigerian flags and singing the national anthem. For many Nigerians, that night still has no full answer.
What SARS was
SARS, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, was a unit of the Nigerian police created to fight armed robbery. Over the years it became known for something else: arbitrary arrests, extortion, torture and killings, very often targeting young people for the way they looked, the phone they carried or the car they drove.
What happened in October 2020
In early October 2020, a video of an alleged killing by SARS officers spread online. Within days, the hashtag #EndSARS became a movement. Young people organised protests across the country and in the diaspora, raised funds, provided food, legal aid and medical care, all without a single leader.
On 11 October, the authorities announced that SARS was dissolved. The protesters did not go home: they had heard such promises before, and they now asked for justice and for deeper reform of the police.
On the night of 20 October, at the Lekki toll gate, the shooting began. Amnesty International reported that at least twelve protesters were killed in Lagos that night. A judicial panel set up by Lagos State later described what happened at Lekki as a massacre. The federal government rejected that conclusion.
Why the novel returns to it
Echoes of Hope is a work of fiction, but its characters live through these weeks. Habeeb arrives in Nigeria as the movement rises, and he has to decide what his own voice is worth.
I want a change and I don't want a change tomorrow; rather, I want a change today. We have waited long enough.
To everyone who spoke up that autumn, and to those who paid for it: this story is borrowed from your courage.