No African country has moral right to criticise abuse against EndSARS protestors – Analyst

Security analyst, Col (rtd) Festus Aboagye, has said the use of state security against peaceful protests has become prevalent in Africa.

According to him, no African country currently has the moral right to ask Nigeria to stop the human rights abuses against protestors that have been recorded in the wake of the End SARS protests.

His comments to GhanaWeb follow protests by tens of thousands of Nigerian youth against police brutality.

The youth have demanded the abolition of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which has been accused of unlawful arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

Violent escalation on October 20, 2020, in Lagos, which resulted in multiple deaths, has further agitated protestors.

The UN, AU and ECOWAS have all condemned the attacks on the protestors.

“No African leader has the moral high ground to go and preach to his or her neighbour because, invariably, you find similar situations in all countries.

“In Ghana Ayawaso West Wuogon comes to mind. It is not about how many people were injured and that nobody died. It is about the sheer use of coercive force by institutions that are grounded in the constitution to go and conduct some kind of paramilitary operations that are resulting in the injuries and so on,” he told GhanaWeb.

He said it is possible Nigerians would head to Ghana over the tensions in that country because Ghana presents the most favourable country for them in terms of language and shared history.