Social movement is not a recent phenomenon as it has been occurring around the world from earliest times. Social movement can happen from local, to national and even on a global scale and stage. Some of which were successful and some was a failed social movement. In some cases, these social movements have changed the places where it occurred. Social movements are mostly tied to the clamor for change, a need for a solution to mention a few. There are examples from the American Civil Right movements to climate change movements and in Nigeria the Bring back our girls and End SARS of 2020. This post aims to enlighten you on the concept of social movement, some types of social movements and the presence of social movements in Nigeria with case studies from 2012 to 2020.
WHAT IS SOCIAL MOVEMENT
The concept of social movement varies and means different things to scholars, activists and people. One of the most relatable conceptualizations of social movement as it relates to this is the definition given by Olesen (2005) in which he defines “social movements as extra-parliamentary and organized attempts to obtain social and political change with the use of non-institutional repertories such as public protests, Information distribution and lobbying”
Tilly (2004) defines big social movements as series of contentious performances, displays and campaigns by which ordinary people with common purpose and solidarity in sustained interaction with elites, opponents and authorities.
Thus, from the above it can be recognized that social movement involves a gathering of people with a common goal in organized groups in other to carry out series of demonstration to disclose their grievances, clamor for change and promote a cause. There are several aims of social movement one is to bring about major socio-economic changes in the area and also ensure that human rights are available to the people.
What is Human Rights,
Human Rights since 1945
TYPES OF SOCIAL MOVEMENT
It is important to note that social movement most times aims for change, to find a solution, and also a way in which people speak up, and promote awareness of an issue that is ravaging a place be it state, nation, country, continent and the world.
There are several types of social movement, the most recognized types are
- Reformative movement
- Religious movements
- Radical movements:
- Revolutionary movement
- Resistance movement
NOTABLE SOCIAL MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA SINCE 2012-2020
In the history of Nigeria, there have been evidence of different important social movements that have occurred, some influenced by a need for change, situations, ideologies, state of the country, political undertone to mention a few. Examples includes social movement of the MOSOP. There are several social movements that have taken place since 2012, this movements had different cause, took place for certain reasons and in different locations. 3 social movements namely Occupy Nigeria, Bring Back our Girls and EndSars would be looked at below
OCCUPY NIGERIA
Occupy Nigeria was a movement that was caused by several reasons such as the removal of subsidy on Petroleum product by the Federal government of the former President of Nigeria on Sunday, January 1st 2012, 120% increment in the price of petrol. Public service inhuman treatment, corruption in the government to mention a few. The movement had the goal to reverse the removal of fuel subsidy that was put in place, demand accountability from the government etc. It was recognized as a socio-political protest movement that ran from January 2nd to January 14th 2012. This was a reformative movement that took place in Nigeria, and Nigerians in Diaspora, the locations were Lagos, Ilorin, Sokoto, Maiduguri and Gusau, it is important to note that about 17 deaths were recorded in some of the different locations (Premium times. 2013 ). Several methods that was employed to carry out occupy Nigeria, this method included Online activism, Demonstrations, strike actions, civil resistance to mention a few. The result of this was an agreement for a partial subsidy that led reduction in fuel price to 97 naira which later increased, the impact was minimal, but it created awareness.
BRING BACK OUR GIRLS
This was a movement that involved the clamor for the returning of female students that was kidnapped and the protection of the girl child. Bring back our girls was a movement caused by the kidnapping of about 276 female students from the government girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria, by Boko Haram which took place in the night of 14-15 April 2014.
The movement began and became a global movement as different world leaders joined the campaign namely Michelle Obama, Pope Francis etc. The outcome of the movement the involvement of foreign bodies and nations as there was the attempted rescue mission launched in 2014. USA sent a 40-person team to Nigeria and global hawk drones to staff the rescue mission. (Parkinson J. Hinshaw D. 2021), 103 was rescued through negotiation and 4 escaped successfully. As of 14 April 2021, more than 100 of the Chibok girls are still missing.
The methods used for this social movement included online activism, hashtag movement/activism #bringbackourgirls, demonstrations, street paintings and graffiti etc.
END SARS
The most recent social movement in the 2012 -2020 timeline is the END SARS movement (End Special Anti-Robbery Squad). End SARS which started as a social media campaign in 2017 with this hashtag #endsars was used to document abuses by SARS and demand (Amnesty) became a decentralized social movement that led to mass protest against police brutality in October 2020. This was caused by the harassments of citizens by SARS officials, inhuman treatment of citizen and youths such as killings, assault, breach of human rights and lack of freedom of expression by citizens. The goal of End SARS, is the disbanding and ban of a police unit called SARS, reform in the government to mention a few. The protesting led to killings with the most recognized, the Lekki Massacre of 2020. The methods used in this movement is online activism, marches, protest, demonstration, civil disobedience, street paintings etc. The outcome of this protest is controversial.
In conclusion, social movements are extra-parliamentary and organized attempts to obtain social and political change with the use of non-institutional repertories such as public protests, information distribution and lobbying. Social movement most times aim for change, to find a solution, and also a way in which people speak up, and promote awareness of an issue that is ravaging a place be it a state, nation, country, continent and the world. In Nigeria there are evidences of several social movement that has taken place. That is what this post has discussed.
REFERENCE
Amnesty, 2021, Nigeria End Impunity For Police Violence by Sars Endsars https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2021/02/nigeria-end-impunity-for-police-violence-by-sars-endsars/ accessed 10/19/2021
Abbo U, Baba A and Njidda B.A, 2020. Political strategies and Social movemnts : A Preliminary Analysis of The Failure of End Sars movement in Nigeria. International Journal of Intellectual Discourse (IJID) Vol 3, Iss. 2
End Sars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_SARS accessed 10/19/2021
Hazen, Jennifer M. (2009). From Social Movement to Armed Group: A Case Study from Nigeria. Contemporary Security Policy, 30(2), 281–300.
KE ORJI : Revolutionary Pressures and Social Movement in Nigets
Occupy Nigeria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Nigeria accessed 10/19/2021
Ogala. E and Ezeamalu B. January 23 2013. #occupynigeria: One year later , the gains. The losses. Premium times.
Olesen, T. (2005). Transnational Publics: New Spaces of Social Movement activism and the Problem of Global Long-sightedness in Current Sociology, Vol. 53 No.3. (p. 436)
Parkinson J. Hinshaw D. 2021. How the ‘Bring Back our girls’ Tweets changed a war in Nigeria.
Tilly, C. (2004). Definition of Social Movement in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Tilly
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