In 2017, the now very well-known Twitter Hashtag campaign, called ENDSARS, started that sought to bring attention to the myriad of cases associated Police Brutality in Nigeria.

In October 2020, the hashtag once again resurfaced owing to much more bizarre cases of police brutality. Over 28 million tweets were recorded on Twitter alone and millions more on other social media networks.

There were also hundreds of solidary protests by Nigerians in diaspora as well as even foreign nationals who joined to call for an end in police brutality. However, there were and are still people who believed and have proffered alternative methods of protests and boycotts to which some did not understand or do not quite appreciate.

 

Many of them argue that protests are good for calling attention to the issues but do not always seek to end the problems in a manner that constructively allows the state to engage the problems, asides also making it easy for state actors to kill people through alternative channels and even direct.

 

In a statement issued and signed by his Communications Manager, Ayo Moses Ogedengbe, Seun Kuti posited that he created POWER MIC with a view to achieve Dialogue, Solidarity and Action from the people in the following manner:

 

1. Bridge the engagement gap between “youth 1” and “youth 2 “. (Professional Groups and Artisan Groups) and create room for dialogue.

 

2. Empower Oppressed Nigerians with a community grassroots voice with which they can consistently speak truth to power , by way of them saying what they need to say clearly, as regards how they are being led. And by this, create Solidarity amongst the oppressed

 

3. It further seeks to take the message of liberation to the people and get them to gain the political education they need to engage positively, as well as organise themselves to become politically aware and active citizens that participates in governance processes within the confines of the law as much as possible.

‘’If you are asking to know how we intend to achieve this, the answer is very simple. We are prepared to go to the people, knowing full well that the oppressor does this only for election purposes. We `will go to all the communities and in a few month, open up the campaign to the generality of Nigerian people through THEPOWERMICCHALLENGE. ‘’ Seun Anikulapo Kuti further posited.

The Power Mic Event is powered by Naija Resistance Movement and Movement of The People.