This article investigates how the Nigerian state is implicated in police brutality and clampdown on the #EndSARS protesters and its implications for democracy, development and national security. The article used primary data comprising 38 telephone interviews, 19,609 Facebook posts/reposts and 24,799 Twitter tweets/retweets, complementing it with a wide range of secondary data. From the analyses of data, it shows there is an obvious mutual trust deficit between government and the citizens. This is supported by one-third of the 36 states in Nigeria which witnessed sporadic #EndSARS protests and destruction of government establishments. Use of heavy firearms against unarmed protesters escalated the conflict from civil disobedience to a demand to a change of government. Thus, establishment of institutional mechanisms and disciplinary measures that control the excesses of security agents during civil protests is imperative to protect civil and human rights of protesters.

本文调查了尼日利亚政府如何参与警察暴行和镇压#EndSARS 抗议者及其对民主、发展和国家安全的影响。这篇文章使用了包括 38 次电话采访、19,609 次 Facebook 帖子/转发和 24,799 次 Twitter 推文/转推在内的主要数据，并用广泛的二手数据对其进行了补充。从数据分析可以看出，政府与公民之间存在明显的互信赤字。这得到了尼日利亚 36 个州中三分之一的支持，这些州目睹了零星的#EndSARS 抗议活动和政府机构的破坏。对手无寸铁的抗议者使用重型火器将冲突从公民抗命升级为要求政府更迭。因此，