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Piece of advice for Western journo friends & tweeps on the TL (especially the foreign correspondents) and even diasporans with big platforms: #EndSARSNow may turn out to be the largest Nigerian protest movement in decades. It is important that you get this story right.
This is a development with many moving parts, albeit one that's been in the making for roughly 3 years. It's perfectly fine to not know all the details right now as you do your homework but for the love of God, talk to folks who know what they're talking about. Ask questions.
Follow Nigerian journalists, activists, academics, creatives and even regular citizens. Read them. Reach out to them. They are all here on Twitter. If you can't find them, you're not trying hard enough. Don't talk to some guy in London, New York or DC and think you'll get this.
Don't rely on your typical network of diaspora folks and middle-class Lagos and Abuja dwellers. This story is so much more than that and is a nationally consequential one. Yes, this affects every Nigerian but the narratives already are fairly Lagos-centric and ought not to be.
And for my diaspora folks, it can be tempting to play "Ask a Nigerian" but resist that, please. If you are sought out for commentary, you can redirect to Nigeria-based folks who are better equipped to speak. If you have a large platform, amplify journalists and activists at home.
Also, be very skeptical of information from government sources or people with known associations to public officials. I shouldn't need to explain why, but this is really not the time for stenography or uncritically regurgitating propaganda under the guise of "objectivity".
I'll end with the absolute, most critical point: keep the focus on the regular men, women and children protesting. Don't center celebrities, diplomats, international organizations or any of that. They may get you clicks, but are ultimately a distraction. This is NOT about them.
