One of the biggest events I witnessed was the End SARS protest in the year 2020. Though I wasn't physically there to protest, I followed up every story, updates and the events unfolding around me. It was a bad moment for Nigerian Youth, a fight against police brutality and oppression. It started as a peaceful protest but turned into a tragedy later, one we never saw coming, with many lives lost. The gruesome event of that period still haunt many today, and the wounds remain fresh in every heart. It was a painful reminder of the price paid for justice.
This event made me reflect on a movie I watched a few weeks ago, titled "Hijack '93", where a group of young Nigerians also fought against oppression. Both events are similar in their aims, but their methods are different. While the End SARS movement was a peaceful protest, the hijackers in this movie resorted to extreme measures, putting innocent lives at risk.
This movie was inspired by the true events of the 1993 aeroplane hijacking from Lagos to Abuja, an airborne hostage negotiation that goes awry when demands are not met in time.
Synopsis:
It all began with a leader who assembled a group of young Nigerians, called themselves the revolutionists (The Movement for the Advancement of Democracy), wanting to change the government. Their primary motive was political. All they wanted was a revolution. They wanted Nigeria to return to democratic rule.
They demand an end to an oppressive regime that has stolen their mandate and want to reclaim it. They want the Federal government to reinstate their democratically elected President Moshood Abiola.
Their mission was a simple one: to hijack the plane that was going to Abuja and force it to land in Frankfurt, Germany, hoping to use the opportunity to use the global stage to highlight the crisis in Nigeria, pressuring the world leaders to intervene.
They boarded the Nigerian Army plane with the help of one of the flight attendants who sneaked a package into the plane for them. Unfortunately and due to low refuel, they landed in Niger. They begged the Niger soldiers to refuel their plane so they could continue their journey, but sadly, things went south when the Nigerian Army came, negotiating for the release of 10 passengers, of which one of them was the son of a Chinese ambassador to Nigeria.
What I loved about the movie was the decision by the Nigerian Army to negotiate for the release of only 10 passengers. At first, I thought it was a selfish move to only care for the lives of some well-known people while leaving the rest to fight for themselves, but it turned out to be a strategic move. Getting the release of the passengers was their way of building trust with the hijackers. Selecting the release of the hostages allowed the authorities to buy time, gather intelligence and plan a rescue operation.
After four days, the Nigerien soldiers stormed the plane, the hijackers were arrested, one of them got shot and the painful part was the tragic death of one of the passengers who was a warlorf, a 22 years old lady who was compelled to interpret from French to English between the hijackers and the Niger soldiers, she was accidentally shot in the process.
Although, I expected to see some parts in the movie especially that of the hijackers' personal lives. One could only see their motivations, which was to make a change in the country, but they were supposed to go deeper into their background so we could know where they were coming from, and that could have made the movie even more gripping. But aside from that, I love that the movie is interesting and educative. The producers and directors really delivered and they tried.
The movie is more about psychological tension and politically portraying a clear message. So, there was not much thrill if you are expecting to find one.
What I did not like about the movie was how the hijackers chose the wrong way to make their demands, putting the lives of the innocent at risk. They demanded an end to an oppressive regime, but hijacking a whole plane filled with many people was not the right path. There are many ways to protest injustice without causing fear or harm.
To make a change, it must be done through peaceful means, not through actions that endanger others. Though I understood their frustration and wanting to do something good and their cause may have been just, the method through which it was carried out only created more suffering rather than solving the problem.
I rate the movie a 6.5 over 10 and it's recommended for a watch.
The images are screenshots from Imdb and YouTube
