Professor of Political Economy, Prof. Pat Utomi has described the #EndSARS protests as one of the best-organised in the world.
For two weeks, Nigerian youths trooped to the streets to demand an end to police brutality.
The protests which held simultaneously across the nation was peaceful until hijacked by hoodlums who went on a looting and arson spree.
Reacting, Utomi lamented that many political office holders do not fully grasp the concept of democracy as a system of government that prioritises “the rational public conversation”.
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“Since we returned to democracy in 1999, most politicians think it is something you go into to look more powerful and have a motorcade with sirens and be able to chase people off the streets when you are moving, to get more money and other things apart from what politics is supposed to be in a democratic order.
“It is about representation, an agency function, you are supposed to be an agent of the people who chose you to represent their perspective, that is where the servant concept comes from.
“Politicians are servants of the people and their first duty is a listening duty, to find out what the people want and to represent that in the arena of public choice.
“But what often happens is that people who go into politics assume that to win an election is to become a master and that the people are their vassals,” Utomi told Daily Sun.
The management expert said that through the #EndSARS protests, Nigerian youths took to the front burner important conversations that the nation should be having.
“When the youths started to articulate this through the ＃EndSARS initiative and the video clip of the police shooting in Ughelli went viral and triggered them to move and do something.
“I am impressed by the organisation of the youths,
“I think it is one of the best-organised protests the world has known in recent times.
“This is our very own version of the protests by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr,” Utomi stated.