The Nation Newspaper

Category: Letters

  • Proposed 18 years admission policy by varsities

    Proposed 18 years admission policy by varsities

    SIR: The National Assembly should pass any proposed bill limiting admission age to the university at 18 without further delay. They should not allow undue procrastination to skirt round this fine and plausible idea likely to save the country from mainly unintended head and belly aches.

    Nigeria should wake up to join the rest of the global world who believe that university education is for adults and not minors or teenagers. The 1999 constitution also exemplifies a torchbearer in this direction by pegging the voting age limit to 18. By the Nigerian constitution, adulthood starts from 18.

    People conversant with university administration and programmes would buttress the fact that the preponderance of students who are rusticated at the end of every session for poor academic performance are due to immaturity and poor understanding of the demands of their various courses.

    In the university, students need maturity to deal with time-bound courses and vagaries of lecture times, in addition to recalcitrant lecturers who are always intolerant and would never bat an eyelid over immature and ipso-facto irresponsible students.

    Read Also: FULL LIST: Varsities who have received NELFUND’s N20,000 monthly stipends

    In the university, lecturers lecture and not teach and this is where teenage students find normally their come-uppance and nemesis. There are child prodigies no doubt, but even then most geniuses fall easy prey to underage disease such that they become intolerable of others, including even their lecturers and invariably incur their wrath.

    Whereas, maturity would have taught them that they owe much to their future greatness by being respective and also make others to count in the schemes of life.

    Parents should be advised to desist from putting undue pressures on their children by falsely declaring their age so as to hasten their admission into the university.

    Exemptions could however be granted to students reading medicine and other paramedical courses where students spend between six to seven years and further one or two years of housemanship or clinical training.

    Such categories of students are likely to finish their university education between 24 or 25 years. By the time you add the one year compulsory NYSC service year, they would have become real grown up adults and citizens.

    As a result of immaturity arising from under-age, most university students become pawn and errant persons in the hand of egregious matured students who use them unknowingly to foment troubles in the campuses of various universities.

    The federal government must make good its decision on this issue of 18 years as age-limit for admission into the university. There should be no undue controversy skirting round its passage into law. Nigeria is not a banana republic where children become graduates without knowing their self-worth.

    •Sunday Olagunju, Ibadan, Oyo State.

  • On President Tinubu’s speech

    On President Tinubu’s speech

    • By Fredrick Nwabufo

    Sir: The President addressed the nation on Sunday, August 4, in the backdrop of the nationwide protests, with a surfeit of compassion and empathy, yet showed great strength and leadership as the Commander-in-Chief.

    President Tinubu appealed to all Nigerians to keep the peace, acknowledging their concerns. He condoled with bereaved families, the injured, and all those who have lost property to the recent violence in some parts of the country.

    As chief advocate of national unity, President Tinubu warned against divisive rhetoric, declaring that ethnic and religious bigotry has no place in the new Nigeria he envisions and is forging.

    Read Also: Protest: Keep faith with Tinubu – Mba, Umahi urge southeast

    As a leader attuned to the needs and concerns of his people, the president reeled out the interventions of his administration across sectors to include: N45.6 billion processed for payment to students and their respective institutions under the Student Loan Scheme – with an additional N50 billion each to be released for NELFUND and the Consumer Credit Corporation: $620 million secured under the Digital and Creative Enterprises (IDiCE) – a programme to empower young people; over N570 billion released to the 36 states to facilitate critical subsistence support to their citizens; the exponentially reviewed national minimum wage of N70,000; suspension of import duties on rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, drugs, and other pharmaceutical and medical supplies for six months to drive down the prices, and many other interventions.

    As Chief Economist of the nation, the president stated that the nation’s economy was on the path of recovery as vibrancy is returning to critical sectors. The coast is clear, the direction certain, and the horizon coruscating with fetching possibilities.

    As Chief Architect, the president outlined the essentiality of the ongoing Renewed Hope City and Estate project, which will provide housing for many Nigerians across states and geopolitical zones.

    As Commander-in-Chief, President Tinubu emphasized that his administration remains resolute in maintaining law and order, condemning the spasmodic acts of arson and violence.

    As statesman, the President pledged to always keep his ears open to the yearnings of citizens.

    •Fredrick Nwabufo,

     Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement,

    Abuja.

  • Open letter to President Tinubu

    Open letter to President Tinubu

    • By Debo Adeniran

    Sir: We are constrained to join other well spirited Nigerians both at home and abroad to proffer possible solutions to the current protest being carried out by some groups of people in different parts of the country.

    We would like to commend you for the various giant strides your administration has recorded in the last one year or thereabout in office. Some of these laudable achievements which cannot be overlooked are the signing into law of the student loan bill which is now being disbursed to students, securing Supreme Court pronouncement for local government financial autonomy, payment of forex backlog, increment in the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000, increment in crude oil production from 900,000bpd to 1.6million bpd, creation of the Northwest and Southeast Development Commissions, selling of crude oil in Naira, suspension of tariff on imported grains and other essential food items, release of grains to state and local governments to ease the food crisis, among others.

    We would like to make the following recommendations. All Nigerians whose business capital is not up to N5 million should be exempted from paying tax.

    All essential commodities including foods, books, medicine, etc. should enjoy tax waivers. Free education and healthcare should be declared for all children up to the Senior Secondary level in the minimum. Grants should be given to indigent students in tertiary institutions while those who are not so indigent should be encouraged to take the option of the student loan your administration introduced.

    Nigeria is unnecessarily encumbered by the weight of its top-heavy and unwieldy system of government it burdens itself with. Our government consists of three tiers of federal, state and local. Each tier consists of three arms, executive, legislative and judiciary. The federal legislature is bicameral with the Senate and House of Representatives. We would like to recommend that a unicameral legislature in the mould of the House of Representatives is cheaper, easier to maintain and makes government business simpler and faster and should be adopted in Nigeria.

    At the end of the day, if the Senate is more fashionable, they should name the National Assembly, Senate or simply make it National Assembly. Election of Members should be based on the same criteria upon which House of Representatives members were elected.

    Read Also: Military vows to resist agendas pushing for undemocratic change of government

    It is also our recommendation that the three tiers of government be reduced to two; the federal and local governments. There is no need for state governments. State governments are just discomfiting interlopers, whose roles can be better played as local governments. State governments are the veritable excuses why local governments had not been functioning optimally. That is why state governments don’t want autonomy for local governments.

    We are aware that the constitution provides that at least one cabinet minister should be appointed from each of the component states; our recommendation is that ministers and state commissioners should also be elected by their respective states or constituencies the same way that the federal and state legislators are respectively elected. The president should only have opportunities of appointing personal assistants and not even special advisers. Ministers should play the roles of advising the President on sectorial issues. The president and ministers should only appoint few assistants whose emoluments would be borne by the government for himself and his ministers. Any public servant who wants more assistants should remunerate them from their personal resources. You must nonetheless put a limit to the number of assistants employed for them.

    Finally, we believe that the current constitution, the ground norm with which our individual and collective lives are being administered, was foisted upon us by an illegitimate government of the military. It is on this note that we recommend that the government should convene a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) wherein every Nigerian voice would be directly represented and where a new Nigerian Constitution would evolve. SNC is the foundation of a true democracy and nationhood; without it we would only be living under self-denial in a mere political contraption without any true unifying factor and therefore signifying nothing but a keg of gunpowder waiting to explode!

    •Debo Adeniran,

    President, CDHR,

    Chairman CACOL, Lagos.

  • Need for timely implementation of policies

    Need for timely implementation of policies

    • By Kenechukwu Aguolu

    Sir: The speech by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the #EndBadGovernance protest has generated a lot of mixed feelings and reactions, as expected. Some people believe that the speech lacked empathy, some feel that it did not address the demands of the protesters, while others are indifferent. The major disappointment for many is that the president did not announce a reduction in the price of Premium Motor Spirit; a return to the era of fuel subsidies.

    The president in his speech acknowledged that Nigerians desired a country where their dreams could be actualized. He also said that he was pained by the loss of life and commiserated with the families of the deceased. More importantly, Mr President called for the suspension of the protests to create room for dialogue. Those who said that the president did not show empathy or recognize the loss of life were not being objective.

    President Bola Tinubu also defended two of his major policies; the removal of fuel subsidies and abolishment of the multiple exchange rate system. He noted that these policies were painful but necessary to reverse the decades of economic mismanagement that didn’t serve the nation well. These policies have resulted in high-level inflation and large foreign exchange losses for multinationals, while banks made foreign exchange gains.

    The speech also outlined various achievements of the current administration. Very remarkable is the reduction in the debt service to revenue ratio from 97% to 68% in the last 13 months. This means that the current administration inherited a situation where the country was using 97% of all its revenue to service debt, which explains the necessity of the shock therapy. Also, the clearance of all foreign exchange obligations has improved investor confidence. The boost in the country’s oil production to 1.61 million barrel per day is also a welcome achievement to mention just a few.

    Read Also: Protest: Keep faith with Tinubu – Mba, Umahi urge southeast

    Some achievements and interventions mentioned by Mr. President might have averted the protest had come earlier. One would have thought that the government would have attended to the issue of a new national minimum wage with more urgency than it did. Now that it has been concluded, the government should ensure its fast implementation. The CNG initiative should have been handled as an emergency considering the impact of the removal of the fuel subsidy on the cost of transportation on goods and services; the hike in transportation cost is one of the major drivers of inflation in Nigeria. The government should have been more proactive in dealing with food inflation by suspending tariffs and other import duties for various food items long ago.

    It is expedient that the administration ensures proper implementation of its policies and initiatives so they don’t end up as just part of the rhetoric. There should be a proper monitoring and evaluation mechanism in place especially for interventions like fertilizer distribution, Digital and Creative Enterprises nano grants, Micro and Small Business single-digit interest loans etc, to ensure resources are not diverted and objectives are achieved. Independent audits should also be carried out from time to time.

    The message President Bola Tinubu should take from the protest is that severe hardship in the land which requires urgent action. Section 14(2)(b) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 [as amended] provides that, “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.

    While the numerous achievements mentioned in the speech may be remarkable, they mean nothing to the common man if they do not translate to poverty reduction, a drop in unemployment, better access to healthcare, education, etc. Furthermore, the government should fast-track and monitor the implementation of the numerous interventions and programs mentioned to ensure the objective of easing the hardship in the country is achieved. It is a call for more action. Proper and timely implementation of policies is key.

    •Kenechukwu Aguolu,

    Abuja.

  • Fuel subsidy: Another viewpoint

    Fuel subsidy: Another viewpoint

    • By Zayyad I. Muhammad

    Sir: There is a massive call for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to bring back the petroleum subsidy. The 10-day “End Bad Governance” protest and the high prices of commodities and services are the products of the removal of fuel subsidies.

    If President Ahmed Bola Tinubu has no plans to restore petroleum subsidies, the government must look for another way to moderate the price of petroleum products, especially premium motor spirit (PMS). The social problems arising from the aftermath of petroleum subsidy removal are purely local issues that require both theoretical and practical solutions.

    Sometimes, the government relies solely on experts who understand the problem from a theoretical perspective, forgetting the real players in the petroleum industry who understand the problem from all its angles: importation, depot loading, haulage, retailing, and manpower management.

    Apart from the subsidy, there are other ways to effectively reduce the price of petrol drastically. Tinubu should critically consider the restoration of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF). Since it is a contributory fund, the source of the fund is principally the net surplus revenue recovered from oil marketing companies. The bridging claims paid to the petroleum marketers automatically equalise petroleum prices throughout Nigeria while maintaining their affordability. There is an innovative electronic business solution that has completely eliminated any irregularities in the distribution and claims of bridged regulated petroleum products. It is an excellent electronic business solution designed to track the movement of petroleum products throughout Nigeria.

    Read Also: Tinubu: Govt won’t allow those with clear political agenda tear nation apart

    There are countries that painstakingly control the prices of petrol for national security. These countries often have uniform prices for petrol across the entire country. Examples are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, Malaysia, Iran, and Venezuela. In most of these countries, national security overrides other considerations; the government has significant control over fuel pricing and distribution, often through subsidies or state-owned oil companies.

    Take India for instance, India controls petrol prices through a combination of market dynamics and government policies, like daily price adjustments based on the international price of crude oil. This helps in keeping the prices within a certain range and makes them more affordable for the general public. The Indian government achieves this through the national oil companies Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL). Another mechanism used by India in the price control measures to address inflation concerns, freight, and logistics, is that the government can intervene directly by adjusting excise duties or providing relief to the oil marketers.

    The Tinubu government should help bring the 21 NNPC depots to life, restore many jobs lost, and double-check product quality.

    •Zayyad I. Muhammad,

    Abuja.

  • When protests crossed the line

    When protests crossed the line

    • By Abdulhamid Abdullahi Aliyu

    Sir: The recent nationwide protests in Nigeria, sparked by widespread economic hardship have brought to the forefront the complex dynamics between peaceful advocacy and violent outbursts.

    In Kano State, the protests revealed a troubling transition from legitimate grievances to chaos, highlighting the thin line between civic expression and lawlessness. The movement initially rooted in calls for improved governance and economic relief, quickly escalated into violence in several states, including Abuja, Kano, Niger, Borno, Kaduna, and Jigawa.

    Tragically, at least 17 people were reported dead, with security forces clashing with demonstrators. In Kano, one person was killed, marking a tragic turn in what began as a peaceful demonstration. The protest in Kano, like in other parts of the country, began peacefully but soon spiralled out of control.

    Eyewitness accounts describe a scene of escalating tension, where demonstrators initially blocked highways and harassed motorists.  In a particularly disturbing incident, protesters in Kano targeted the newly established Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) office.

    The building, symbolizing a step towards greater digital connectivity and innovation, was looted and set ablaze. Everything, from office furniture to technological equipment, was taken or destroyed. This act of vandalism not only disrupted a crucial public service but also symbolized a broader collapse of order and respect for public property.

    During the protests, a poignant moment occurred when a female protester, carrying her baby, confronted police officers. Her husband had been killed by bandits in Katsina, and she came to the protest to voice her frustration with the government’s failure to address widespread insecurity and economic hardship.

    “Do they also want to kill my baby?” she asked, highlighting the desperation felt by many Nigerians. Similarly, the presence of pro-government demonstrators added another layer of complexity.

    The government’s response has been a mix of force and appeals for dialogue. Security forces, using teargas and pepper spray, tried to disperse the crowds, while helicopters overhead released additional teargas to control the situation. The use of such measures, however, did little to quell the unrest and instead fuelled public anger and defiance.

    Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike called for dialogue, emphasizing the government’s willingness to engage with the protesters. However, the continued violence and heavy-handed tactics used by the security forces suggest a deeper disconnect between the authorities and the populace.

    Read Also: Protests: Police blast Amnesty over inaccurate casualty figures

    The chaos in Kano and other states serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need for economic and social reforms in Nigeria. While the protests highlight legitimate concerns over governance, security, and economic management, the turn to violence undermines these issues’ seriousness. 

    The destruction of public property, looting, and loss of lives cannot be condoned, as they detract from the core message of the protests and harm innocent citizens. Moving forward, it is crucial for both the government and protest leaders to find common ground. The government must not only listen to the demands of the people but also provide tangible solutions to the problems of unemployment, inflation, and insecurity.

    On the other hand, protest organizers must emphasize peaceful demonstration and discourage violence. The recent events in Kano and across Nigeria reflect a broader crisis of governance and trust. It is a wake-up call for all stakeholders to address the root causes of the discontent and work towards a more equitable and just society.

    Only through constructive engagement and mutual respect can Nigeria hope to navigate these turbulent times and build a future that meets the aspirations of all its citizens.

    •Abdulhamid Abdullahi Aliyu,

    abdulhamidabdullahiali@ gmail.com

  • Now that the President has spoken

    Now that the President has spoken

    • By Bukola Ajisola

    Sir: There was nothing President Bola Tinubu could have said that will not be politicized by the gladiators waiting in the wings to subject his speech to forensic algorithms.

    If the president had been less dramatic on his day of inauguration and quietly allowed subsidies on petrol to disappear as was intended in the zero budgetary allocation by his predecessor, perhaps the dynamics of the unfortunate protests would have taken a different shape.

    The president is being put on the spot to give another speech to reinstate the egregious subsidy regimes that would offer a temporary relief which I love to call the Venezuelan option.

    The option makes available cheap fossil fuels procured with huge debt financing that is certain to gulp more than a hundred percent of the nation’s treasury including all projected revenues.

    Be that as it may, the silence of the state governors who have received the windfall of their lives owing to the subsidy removal should be of more concern to Nigerians. Lagosians for instance should be more interested in what Lagos governor says about land reforms, lack of which is rendering millions of professionals in the built industry prostrate.

    Lack of potable water in most part of Lagos has made the city a staccato of tunnelling boreholes in the 21St century.

    In the same vein, it may not be out of place to ask what Lagos State has done with one of the largest rice mills in Africa capable of employing almost all the hungry protesters who have taken to the streets.

    A state in the South/South region just spent N850bn on luxury cars not minding the ravaging hunger putting the populace at their wits end.

    Tinubu’s gift of elocution or stage comportment is of lesser consequence to discerning Nigerians who in their millions are caught between the raging mob of rioters, activists ventilating for populism and peaceful protesters who do not understand the dynamics of what has befalling the nation.

    President Tinubu has done his best within his first year in office; there are some of his decisions that could be better enunciated going forward but that is left for future interrogation.

    Read Also: Tinubu: Govt won’t allow those with clear political agenda tear nation apart

    I would rather that the Local Government chairmen and their councillors put Nigerians to speed on their fidelity to budgetary deliverables while putting their efforts to improving social services in the public domain.

    Organizers of the hunger protest as well as well-meaning community leaders should form pressure groups in every local government to compel local authorities to engage Nigerians on regular basis.

    The hardship corollaries are domiciled in the local governments and are exacerbated by the governors’ wasteful spending with their opaque and lack of transparent accounting practices.

    Hopefully the recent Supreme Court’s ruling on local government autonomy would put paid to the unabated recklessness.

    A presidential broadcast to regurgitate the obvious facts of why subsidies cannot be reversed is of no probationary value to the polity at a time the security agents are having difficult time quelling the raging protests.

    However, the president can initiate four urgent interventions which could turn around the economy going forward.

    One is ascertaining that all the comatose refineries are working latest by the end of 2024, secondly more scrutiny of the fiscal responsibility at the subnational level by EFCC and ICPC would be of tremendous importance, implementing a revised Oronsaye Report and lastly ramping up production by recalibrating our steel industry.

    A stitch in time can save nine billion and the next protest could be the last straw.

    •Bukola Ajisola,

    bukymany@yahoo.com

  • Strategic solutions to food insecurity

    Strategic solutions to food insecurity

    By Adetola Odusote

    Sir: One sure  strategy that could help mitigate food insecurity in the country is to set up machinery for the improvement of agricultural productivity by encouraging farmers to embrace the use of modern farming techniques, precision agriculture, improved seed varieties, and efficient irrigation systems.

    Government at all levels also needs to create access to inputs, ensuring that farmers have access to quality seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides and exposing farmers tobest practices, pest management, and sustainable farming methods.

    The government should as a matter of urgency strengthen transportation networks. One refers here to rural roads and transportation networks to facilitate the movement of goods from farms to markets. Time to encourage public private partnership in the provision of storage facilities to reduce post-harvest losses.

    One other effective way to support for smallholder farmers is access microfinance and credit; another is to encourage the formation of farmer cooperatives to enhance bargaining power and reduce costs through collective purchasing and selling.

    It is time for our agriculture ministries to strengthen agricultural extension services to support farmers with technical advice and information.

    Read Also: Reps member says poor communication keeps Tinubu’s achievements hidden from Nigerians

    State and local governments should face reality of their peoples needs. They should support and cooperate with the federal government in addressing the food shortage situation of the nation. Every state should as a matter of necessity, prioritize agriculture development. Provide support base for farmers in their states

    Nothing stops the government from converting the National Youth Service Corps programme into National Youth Farming Scheme, whereby all youth corps members are trained right from camp in various areas of agricultural farming, animal farming, seeds production etc. The host states should be mandated to provide prepared arable land, farm tools, farm inputs, and other resources, including financial resources required for the young corps members to succeed in their respective states. At the end, the state governments through the local councils would be expected to purchase the yields from their farm lands.  Naturally, some of these corps’ members might in the end embrace farming at the end of their service year. Moreso. they will have enough capital and experience to embrace farming rather than be looking for unavailable white-collar jobs, or go into crimes.

    The federal government should foster international partnerships to access funding, technology, and expertise, leverage international aid and support to implement large-scale food security programs and projects. In all, a coordinated and sustained effort is essential to address the root causes of food insecurity and ensure long-term food security for Nigeria.

    •Adetola Odusote,

     Lagos.

  • Protests: When time is the enemy

    Protests: When time is the enemy

    By Kene Obiezu

    Sir: Who is to blame for Nigeria’s many woes? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Goodluck Ebele Jonathan or former president, Muhammadu Buhari? Or is it Nigerians themselves? Just who?

    The protests which have resonated across the country speak to pent-up anger at the hunger harassing the country.

    In May, Nigeria marked 25 years since democracy returned to the country in 1999. A watershed in the country’s history of hell and high water had a rarity in the presidency.  President Tinubu is arguably the first democrat at heart to become Nigeria’s president. His unmistakable commitment to democracy fetched him exile following the annulment of the 1993 elections. His first real crisis as Nigeria’s president and the chairman of the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) came when the military in neighbouring Niger Republic bludgeoned its way into the government house in Niamey. President Tinubu’s trenchant criticism of the coup plotters and defence of democracy in the country and sub-region cemented his commitment to democracy.

    The morning tells the day and so far, there are signs that the president in not cut from the same cloth as his predecessor. There have been signs that he is determined to address the problems of the country. Some of his key appointments have directly addressed the exclusionary politics of his predecessor. He has tried to be fair to every region of the country, strongly resisting the temptation to victimize any part of the country relying on voting patterns during the last elections. Insecurity has fallen sharply in Kaduna and Benue states which fed the country with vast killing fields during the last administration.

    The clear signs of progress may be blurred by the removal of fuel subsidy and the sharp spike in the cost of living. On the other hand, some Nigerians are making the point that the government should not ask for sacrifices when it is not ready to make any. They argue that the fuel subsidy was peeled out without any plans, plunging Nigerians into debilitating hardship.

    Read Also: Abuja peaceful protest turns violent as people scramble for safety

    It is okay to feel a sense of betrayal but at this point, blame is, if not exactly, misplaced, mistimed.

    Nigeria is no doubt in a deep mess. The country is steeply sunk in the muck of corruption. Corrupt syndicates which run many Ministries, Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) well predate the current government. There are many state governors who remain committed to incompetence and ineptitude. The fuel subsidy syndicate is committed to some sort of fightback. Those fuelling insecurity won’t go down without a fight. Oil thieves are still sharpening their tools. While it is the responsibility of the government to give these groups a run for their money, one year and two months is not enough to muster an effective response. Time is the enemy here.

    It is understandable that Nigerians are impatient. Having woken up from their slumber during eight disastrous years under Muhammadu Buhari, they are itching to make amends for their docility. They expect a quick fix. What they need though is a dose of reality.

    President Tinubu is not a miracle worker. He has never held himself out to be a miracle worker. To mould Nigeria’s myriad problems into a mound and expect him to be impaled atop less than two years into his administration is mere wishful thinking.

    At present, even a miracle worker would struggle to pick through Nigeria’s rubble. Since something appears to be stirring under President Tinubu, the least Nigerians can do is to wait with impatience but with mercy.

    •Kene Obiezu,

    keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • Right to protest: A grammar standpoint

    Right to protest: A grammar standpoint

    By Ganiu Bamgbose, PhD

    Sir: The constitution of Nigeria is silent on whether “protest” or its euphemistic version, “peaceful protest”, is allowed or not, and this has resulted in arguments among the legal practitioners in Nigeria. While some lawyers have argued that protest is a constitutional right, others submit that its legality is only within the existence of other rights such as the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. With the controversies surrounding the legal stand, I conceived of grammar as possible intervention in the face of the uproar. After all, the name of an act can serve as its operational boundary. So, what is a protest?

    The Online Cambridge Dictionary gives it as “a strong complaint expressing disagreement, disapproval, or opposition”. “If you protest against something or about something, you say or show publicly that you object to it”.

    The last quote is the clarification given in Collins Dictionary. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary takes it a step farther by defining protest as “the expression of strong disagreement with or opposition to something; a statement or action that shows this”. The ambiguity in this definition, however, is the limit of the action that characterises a protest.

    This leads me to the explanation of a synonym for protest: riot. The Cambridge Dictionary defines riot as an occasion when a large number of people behave in a noisy, violent, and uncontrolled way in public, often as a protest. Collins Dictionary makes it clearer that “when there is a riot, a crowd of people behave violently in a public place, for example they fight, throw stones, or damage buildings and vehicles”.

    Again, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is succinct in its description of riot as a situation in which a group of people behave in a violent way in a public place, often as a protest.

    Evident in the explanations of these two words is their somewhat dangerous intersection. While it has been explained that a protest can be action-based, the level of action can swiftly move one to the realm of riot while still assuming one is protesting.

    Read Also: Reps member says poor communication keeps Tinubu’s achievements hidden from Nigerians

    It is at this point deserving of explanation that while protest can be said to be constitutional within the ambits of certain fundamental human rights, section 71 of the Criminal Code is explicit on the consequence of riot: Any person who takes part in a riot is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years. In countries where the legal system distinguishes between very serious crimes and less serious ones, a felony is a very serious crime such as armed robbery. Cambridge Dictionary defines felony as an example of serious crime that can be punished by one or more years in prison.

    What is there to add?

    Whether now or any other time, protesters must be mindful of the tiny line between protest and riot and understand that the latter is a punishable offence. No government anywhere in the world will be tolerant of the vandalisation of public infrastructure and looting. Therefore, it is important for protesters to act within the limit of law and be mindful of the possibility of a swift change from protest to riot. Opinion leaders and influential Nigerians must put measures in place to ensure that what is intended as a protest does not become a riot, especially through the activities of miscreants who will hide under a peaceful protest.

    •Ganiu Bamgbose, PhD,

    Lagos State University, Ojo.