Anthony Joshua said he thought the #EndSARs protests which
rocked Nigeria in October was a fight against a virus Severe acute respiratory
syndrome which also has the SARS acronym.
In an interview with PUNCH, Joshua
said because he had never been a victim of police brutality while in Nigeria,
he had never heard of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
Joshua joined global
stars in supporting the #EndSARS movement after Nigerians had gone to the
streets to protest against the activities of SARS whose officers were accused
of extrajudicial killings, unlawful detentions, torture, extortion and various
forms of abuses.
The boxer said it was after his uncle called his attention to the protests in Nigeria that he had to read more about SARS and Nigeria’s history.
“I never knew what
SARS was during my time in Nigeria; I never encountered SARS, so, when the
movement started happening, I thought SARS was maybe like a virus, I didn’t
know SARS. One day after training, my uncle called me and this was just before
the issue of the Lekki toll gate, about five hours before it, he called me and
told me about the situation on the ground. He told me the people of Nigeria
loved me and wanted to hear my voice on it,” Joshua said.
“I told him I didn’t
know enough about it to talk about it and he said I should just lend my voice
and bring awareness. So, I said if it’s what I can do for now, let me just lend
my voice and bring my attention to it because I have a big platform. So, I just
said it’s important to find a common ground because you can’t overthrow the
government in a minute, but we need to find a common solution that will benefit
the people.
“So I thought it was
important for me to send out a positive message and shortly after that, about
four hours later, people had been murdered at the toll gate. So, I said this
wasn’t only about finding a common ground, this had to stop. But I didn’t want
to go back on my message, I had sent a message out and I had done a lot more
research about the #EndSARS movement.
“I also started
learning about the colonial history, the structure of the political powers, the
Hausa, the Yoruba, the Igbo. I learnt about the Biafra war, I learnt about Lady
Lugard, I learnt about why Nigeria is called Nigeria – because of the River Niger
and the area.
“So, I started doing
a lot of research on the country and I found out that the country has so much
potential, it is a country where people are thriving to be better and with the
leaders, they need to put more into the people, and that is what the #EndSARS
is about. It is not just about the police, it is about good government looking
after the people, and that is what the people want and I am with the people, I
am a man of the people, so I support what they say.
“And from that
#EndSARS movement, it educated me what SARS was, it educated me about the
issues in Nigeria, it gave me more. I felt proud to be a Nigerian because I
learnt more about the country’s heritage after the #EndSARS movement,” he
added.
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