Political economist and former presidential candidate, Prof. Patrick Utomi, and Human Rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, are billed to attend a lecture in honour of Dele Giwa, as well as to commemorate the first anniversary of the #EndSARS protest.
Dele Giwa was the founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine. He died 35 years ago. However, the event is organised by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy, in partnership with Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, Enough is Enough Nigeria, National Consultative Front, PLAYYA and MILID Foundation
Moreso, the event will also mark the public presentation of Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices – a book of 60 essays by 60 young Nigerians which salutes 60 years of Nigeria’s independence and points the way towards a better country.
The #EndSARS advocacy made global headlines last October when young Nigerians across the country and in major cities around the world embarked on protests against persistent brutality and rights violations by the Nigeria Police Force.
The Coordinator of AFRICMIL, Chido Onumah, said in a statement, “One year after the protests and the reprehensible violent response by the Nigerian Army which led to the death of unarmed protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos. It is important to cast a critical eye on that incident and see what lessons have been learnt and what needs to be done going forward,”
Significantly, the first-year remembrance of these protests coincides with the 35th anniversary of the murder via letter-bomb of the celebrated journalist, Dele Giwa.
“It is a measure of the acute dysfunction of the Nigerian state that till date, no one has been arrested let alone brought to trial for this heinous crime, Onumah noted.
