Nigerian youth activist and one of the faces of the #EndSARS protests in October 2020, Rinu Oduala, has taken to social media to lament the state of the nation. The 24-year-old undergraduate of the Lagos State University stressed that the country’s ills cannot be allowed to grow and fester as the country is what many young people have ever known and all they have.
“Some of us can’t stop worrying about Nigeria. It’s all we’ve known. It’s all we have” she wrote on Twitter.
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Hours later, Rinu who is popularly known as SavyyRinu bemoaned the state of insecurity in Lagos and how Lagosians now ‘budget’ money for thieves.
“Lagosians are now putting armed robbers in their tight budget. A case of the poor literally eating up the rich… alongside their fellow poor people.”
Rinu shot to prominence in 2020 when she alongside other activists stormed and barricaded the Lagos Government House in Alausa over incessant police killings. The protests soon snowballed and spread across the rest of the country forcing Nigeria’s leadership to scrap the controversial SARS unit of the police.
A panel of inquiry was formed afterwards to investigate cases of police brutality and killing, and subsequently give justice to victims. As a front-runner, Rinu was elected alongside Temitope Majekodunmi to represent the youth alongside several other stakeholders. However, Rinu resigned from her post a few weeks of inquiry, alleging a coverup by the government.
She remains popular amongst Nigeria’s Youth population and has appeared on magazine covers and has had interviews with media houses outside Nigeria.
Rinu Oduala was named in Y! Africa’s Most Inspiring Youth on the Continent – Africa 500.
