Right vs right

Editorial

Come tomorrow, February 13, the Lekki toll plaza, of the Lekki Concession Company (LCC), might just be bracing for a clash of rights: the right to protest versus the right, of a private company, to do its business and earn legitimate living.

Given the tragic climax of the #EndSARS protests of 2020, in which the same plaza  was a vortex, the Police have a bounden duty to ensure the threatened protests, planned for the same site, don’t end in another orgy of arson, killings and maiming.  Lagos clearly cannot afford a free-wheeling destruction of that sort again.

This warning is imperative, as two groups are raring to go.  The one, mobilizing behind #OccupyLekkiTollGate, is moving to shut down the gates.  The other, mobilizing behind #DefendLagos, is daring the #Occupy group to walk its talk, tapping into popular fears that, since #EndSARS petered into near-anarchy, an encore, under any guise, should be shut down.  #DefendLagos, for effect, comes with a severe tweet in pidgin: #DemNoBornYourPapaWell!  Everything, therefore, points to a budding blowout.

That is a legitimate fear.  That is why the security agencies should not only occupy that theatre, they must closely watch it, to ensure things don’t spiral out of control.

This renewed excitement birthed at the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry, probing the #EndSARS crisis. The panel voted 5-4 to allow LCC resume its tolling business, reasoning it was unfair to indefinitely shut down its lawful and legitimate trade.  But the losing bloc argued that such a step was premature, since LCC was allegedly stonewalling the panel, in terms of vital evidence.

That protest gave oxygen to the renewed mobilization, apparently to block in the street, what LCC had gained at the suite.  Without prejudice to constitutional right to protests, this appears a Trump-like abuse to subvert whatever gains accruing from a democratic vote, taking the additional hue of due process, of a judicial panel.

Such undemocratic temper has not only landed former President Donald Trump an unprecedented second impeachment (and his ongoing trial in the US Senate could well hand him more blues), it has earned America global embarrassment, thought virtually impossible in the pre-Trump era, as late as 2015.

But then, the Lekki case is umpteenth example of how the logical claim of democratic rights (to protest) could peak in the virulent illogic of brutally raping other people’s equally valid rights.  It’s no democracy if, in claiming your right, you rob others of theirs.  That popular phrase is trite: your right stops where others’ begin.

That brings the discourse to its very genesis.  In the heated passion of the #EndSARS, everyone conveniently forgot that LCC, as a lawful and legitimate company, has rights too under the law, to do its business without let or hindrance.

LCC had no dog in the #EndSARS fight.  It was a dispute between a piqued segment of the Nigerian people against the rogue elements of FSARS, brutalizing citizens under the pretext of enforcing the law.  Yet, LCC’s business premises (the Lekki toll plaza) became the epicentre of the protests.

Deep into the crisis, the alleged sins of others ended up tarring LCC the more — you can’t think of the fictive “Lekki massacre”, without thinking of the toll plaza (again a private business premises) as a horrible site — and sight.

Now, months after, the #Occupy lobby is mobilizing for a continued shutdown, since 20 October 2020, when the protests snowballed in the Lekki shootings.  Aside from respecting — and enforcing — the right of commuters, to shuttle around in peace without let, you just wonder further jeopardy a company would suffer for a dispute it was originally no part to.  But all these fine and legitimate points appear well and truly lost in the fervency of democratic claims!  It’s just awfully unfair!

Perhaps, LCC should launch a legal battle to push its right to drive its trade in peace, with absolutely no interference, so long as it hasn’t broken any law?  If the courts find for it, the brazen illegality of occupying a private premises, to protest a public wrong, would be clear to all.

But before then, the Police must enforce the right of other Lagosians to move about freely.  On both counts, it should even be clearer that massing at the Lekki toll gates has suspect legality, even if people have a right to protest.

But beyond rights and counter-rights, the emergency here is to forestall chaos.  The destruction that crested the last #EndSARS protests must be averted at all cost.