We had reported in our recent news update, the challenge advocacy group Feminist Coalition was having with regards to receiving financial donations that have helped in sustaining protesters across Nigeria as they leave their homes before day break to protest an end to police brutality. People had crowdfunded over N60million which was used in taking care of protesters’ welfare and a detailed account of the money shared by it’s handlers until suddenly the Flutterwave link for sending donations is allegedly attacked on Tuesday 13th October. Without any delay, a Bitcoin account is shared as backup.
On Wednesday the 14th of October however, it would rain buckets in Lagos but protesters are unflinching as they stand in the rain chanting #EndSARS and gathering in their numbers to sustain the momentum of the protests. All this while the feminist.co group start reaching out to protesters in different parts to provide raincoats, hot liquids and the likes for the protesters. This move would be incredibly successful as protesters share pictures of tea, croissants, soups being delivered to them at their protest locations.
On the sidelines however, are weighty allegations trickling in about the feminist.co group being fraudulent by not stopping the donations and the group being tagged a cult in now deleted tweets by an activist. Thousands of Nigerians would rise to the defense of the group stating how they have received welfare support for protests in their city to compensation for bereaved families during the protests and a transparent calculation of how the monies are disbursed on Twitter for all to see.
The women who are connected with the Feminist Coalition group would take to Twitter to clear the air on these allegations while trying not to take attention away from the protests as the hashtag #EndSARS and #EndSWAT get affected on Twitter’s trend algorithm. The hashtags are revived but the narratives suffer in direction. It is nightfall and protesters are either at home or homebound. Twitter users are sharing the beautiful parts of the day’s protests and what the next day’s protests will be like as the government hasn’t given satisfactory response to demands made, then it happens.
When absolutely no-one is exactly paying attention, Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey breaks the internet to smithereens by first tweeting “#ENDSARS ” quoting a TechCabal newsletter on the effect SARS has had on Nigerian techies, with receipts!
He follows it by tweeting the Feminist Coalition website before grinding the internet to fine powder by asking his 4.8m followers to donate to the Coalition’s Bitcoin account quoting their handle’s post with its full details!
While the internet is trying to recover from all that flex, the coalition state that their website has crashed from unexpected traffic but within minutes they update that it has been restored. And to cap it all, the coalition and its members who have been pivotal to releasing arrested protesters from police custody all receive verification badges on their handles. All within minutes! It may not seem like a lot, but it feels like a verification for all the hardwork they have put in. It is a good day to be Nigerian and an even better time to be alive to see big brother Jack stand up for well meaning young Nigerians using his tech company to make a change for all to see.
