Nollywood actor Williams Uche Mba has started that many celebrities were pressured into joining the #endsars protest which he stated lasted for too long.
Recall that the youths protested for two weeks for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and a reform of the police force which the government disbanded and promised to reform the police force.
Uche Mba told Sunday Scoop that the climax of the protest should have been the candlelit night and the other days should have been for strategy instead of continuing the protest.
He said, “It is about control. That is why you have brakes in your car. It is to know when to stop or slow down, and when to accelerate. At a point, the protests got out of control. They started doing parties at the toll gate. We were all asking for the same thing – basic amenities.
“I know, constitutionally, you cannot use curfews to stop a protest. But maybe, we could have tried to work with the government just for that day. There was peer pressure on most of my colleagues. I know some of them that were pressurised to go out on the streets, even when the government had given us airtime. The pressure was more from the fans. ”
The actor also noted that for the first time, the government responded promptly to the public’s demands. He added that due to attention it got, Nigerians were updated about every step that was taken.
He said, “We had it at some point and I was telling people that the climax of the protest would have been the candlelight vigil. The next day should have been about strategy. It should have been about ‘what is the next thing? Now, we have those people where we want them.’
“Because we already had that, we should have just not overshot. We should have waited for them to completely implement everything we were asking for regarding police brutality. They met us halfway on the #5for5 demands.”
Source: Punch
