By-Elections: What Happened To The Soro Soke Generation?

On Saturday, December 5th, 2020, By-Elections took place at designated polling centres across the country. Given the nature of these elections, much anticipation did not really rent the air as opposed to general elections seasons where critical offices are usually vied for.

As usual, the heavyweight political parties produced their candidates whose tug of war to a great extent grabbed the headlines in the media. Will the bigwigs have it their way as usual? or will there be an upset on the cards?

Last weekend’s election may not have reverberated with much vibrations as the general elections, but for Nigerian youths, it was significant in proving just how serious the recent calls for better governance would be; a litmus test to ascertain the resolve to overhaul the status quo and engender real change.

For the better part of the month of October, Nigerian youths, whose dissidence against the system has never gone beyond the runway of verbal vituperations, took to the streets in peaceful demonstrations simultaneously across the country. The focal point of the demonstration was an end to a rogue police unit that had forgotten the fundamental essence of its objective.

But then, it goes without a saying that the EndSARS protests was way beyond the disbandment of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad. It was a metaphor; a trope term which encapsulated bad governance of which the anti-robbery squad represented a parasitic element emblematic of a larger problem. The system is broken, and Nigerian youths for the first time came together to call for an overhaul of this broken system.

As characteristic of any revolution geared towards effecting change, casualties were recorded, and the #EndSARS protests was brought to a screeching halt in event of the slaughter of a yet to be ascertained number of peaceful protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20th, 2020. The revolution had turned feisty, hence the need to apply the brakes.

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During the heat of the nationwide protests, a popular phrase had sprung up- “Soro Soke”, which in Yoruba translates to “speak up”. It was a slogan laced with the clarion call to all to speak up against bad governance, and of course, a significant fraction of Nigerians believed that one of the potent means of speaking up against this bad governance would be during the 2023 elections, where Nigerian youths would finally hold legal grounds to vote out this set of politicians who have failed tremendously in the bid to take the country to it’s dream destination; a set of leaders who are culpable of frittering away Nigeria’s God given resources with reckless abandon.

Over the weekend, By-elections took place in Lagos, Bauchi, Plateau and Imo. It wasn’t the main event, but definitely provided a chance for the performers of the main event to rehearse what would be showcased on the bigger stage.

However, much to the smack of the desired change, it was business as usual again as the heavyweight parties swept through last weekend’s By-elections; so, if this was a rehearsal for the main event, was replete with egregious blunders which leaves little hope for the achievement of the desired change come 2023. This begs very critical questions at this moment, the loudest of which is “what happened to the soro soke generation”?

A Twitter user by the monicker, Nefertiti, aptly sums this up with a tweet as represented below.