In Lagos, Nigeria for nearly two weeks, protesters have been marching against the ongoing police brutality in the nation. Angry young Nigerians have taken to the streets chanting enough is enough and “soro soke,” which means speak up in Yoruba, the country’s language.

The protests were originally for a specific police force known as SARS (Special Anti Robbery Squad) to be shut down. However, the protesters have begun to strive for overall police reform and an end to poor governance in their country.

As a response. President Muhammadu Buhari promised to enact extensive police reform and to make sure the primary goal of the police is the peoples safety.

However, the president’s comment was not enough to make the protests end. When President Buhari’s subordinates released information saying that the SARS officers would simply just be redeployed elsewhere in the police system.

On October 20th, marches took a deadly turn as soldiers fired on a group of protesters. As soldiers moved in took reclaim the area, looting and vandalism broke out. At least 17 police stations were reported vandalized.

This year, we were enlightened by an unbelievable amount of police brutality in our nation, but thanks to the voices of many who have first-handedly experienced violence from the police force, it did not go unnoticed.

The End SARS movement and the Black Lives Matter movement are quite similar… two groups of minorities who have been treated unfairly and inhumanely by a corrupt government and a police system trained to ‘shoot to kill.’

There is a problem in our world, not just our nation. People’s voices and stories deserve to be told, and justice needs to be served.