The faceless organisers had dubbed their planned #EndBadGovernnace protest with a foreboding: “Days of Rage.”
It turned out that the first day carried a blazing compass towards that cataclysmic direction. There were reasons to believe that the agitation might slip into chaos, given the outcome of past actions. Thankfully, some prescient governments, especially in the Southwest, took proactive measures to prevent bedlam. Before the nation went to bed, the protest caused huge losses that would take some time to quantify and recover from.
Vehicles were off the roads from the wee hours, especially on major routes. Economic and social activities were paralysed. Shops were under lock and key. Banks did not open. Markets, filling stations and schools were shut. Many ordinary folks and workers who were not on essential duties stayed indoors.
In Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre, there were fears about hoodlums and merchants of chaos unleashing mayhem on innocent citizens conducting their legitimate businesses. Many residents stayed indoors in the fear that movement would be hampered. Their experience in the October 2020 #EndSARS outrageous destruction still lingers.
Artisans and peasants lost daily income. Flights were slightly disrupted. Business schedules were cancelled. Everybody’s attention was on the action. The attention of the world was also on Nigeria.
There was panic. The country was enveloped in anxiety. Many stayed glued to their television sets for the latest information. Others stayed close to their radio to monitor events. Many relied on social media, the purveyors of authentic and fake news.
The reason for the apprehension was obvious. Although a protest is legal, the organisers’ dubbing of the agitation 10 days of rage drove fear through the spines of the citizens. Rage means strong, extreme, and uncontrolled violent anger. Therefore, discerning Nigerians remembered the #EndSARS protest and the mayhem unleashed by those who hijacked it, the destruction of public facilities and the avoidable loss of lives.
Some of the demands of the arrowheads were genuine; others were laughable. Curiously, the agitators were oblivious of the fact that some of the demands were being addressed by government. However, certain unrealistic demands underscored the idealistic yearnings of the youths who swim in the pool of subjectivity.
Indisputably, there was tacit support for the protests by opposition figures who were injured by the outcome of the fiercely contested 2023 presidential election, which resulted in bitter litigation that ultimately terminated at the Supreme Court. This makes the contest, in part, the continuation of the battle for power. Their strategy is to mobilise and manipulate the public against the government, and incite their supporters and other gullible people against its policies with a tactical intention to weaken it ahead of the 2027 poll.
No doubt, the threat shook the government, which started reeling out its scorecards across the sectors, its ongoing people-oriented policies and programmes, particularly those targeted at the youths, and their future projection for national prosperity.
At the end of the first day of protest, the fears of the government, statesmen, traditional rulers and religious leaders who had cautioned against the protest were confirmed. Experts noted that N100 billion was lost in Lagos to economic disruption.
Predictably, it turned violent in other states. Those who claimed to be the organisers failed to lead the protest. In some states, it was a semblance of an uprising. Though reports gave different casualty figures, 11 lives were said to have been lost in four states, the least of the figures. Many public assets were destroyed. Private properties were vandalised.
In Kano, protesters even threatened to invade the Government House before they were forcefully dispersed to prevent unpleasant consequences. The Digital Innovation Park in Kano slated for launch next week was a casualty of a colossal assault. It was built to support the technical talent accelerator (3MTT). Alongside the #3MTT, the building was meant to host the buildathon holiday maker programme for secondary school kids from next week.
Communication and Innovation Minister Bosun Tijani was in shock that some Nigerians could set ablaze and loot such a national asset in the guise of a protest. It is a slight setback for the country’s journey to deepening the workforce for technology while creating job opportunities for the youth. In his words: “Millions of naira down the drain.”
In Niger, Yobe, Kaduna, Gombe, Jigawa, and Borno, the protest degenerated into riots. An account said Boko Haram criminals infiltrated the rank of the demonstrators, killing some people.
While other governors urged their people to rethink the protest, Kano State Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf promised to join them and and take their petition to higher authorities. The amorphous band of protesters ignored his advice to make it peaceful. As His Excellency felt the heat, he had to declare a curfew to halt the escalation of violence and wanton destruction of public property.
In Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), some roads were barricaded and vehicular movement was hindered. It meant those exercising their freedom of association and assembly inadvertently violated other people’s freedom of movement. A police station was razed in the FCT.
As urchins joined the protesters, there was hullabaloo. There was loss of control.
In Dutse, the capital of Jigawa, the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was torched. In Katsina, some miscreants called for a military takeover, oblivious of past protracted battles against sit-tight military interlopers.
These scenarios imply that protesters in Nigeria are not mature agitators who would not veer into looting, arson, vandalism and other forms of misdemeanours. It is ironical that those complaining against bad governance are also very disorganised in their approaches.
Remarkably, the protests polarised the polity. While some protesters, whose actions appear justifiable because of the glaring and persistent hardship satisfied their appetite for protest, there were also protests in support of the Tinubu administration by equally patriotic, rational and objective citizens who disagreed that the government had failed.
The 12-point demands of the first group are as follows: “Revert petrol pump price to N100/litre; combat insecurity and hunger; close all IDP camps and resettle the campers; total electoral reform, independent probe into the electoral budget of N355 billion; immediate release of #EndSARS protesters still in detention; and implementation of a living wage (the minimum wage of N300,000).”
Others are “compulsory free education from primary to secondary school, children of public school holders must attend public schools in the country, the government must patronise made-in-Nigeria goods, transition to unicameral legislation as well as judicial and constitutional reviews.”
The organised Labour, which was not a party to the protest, had sealed a deal of N70,000 minimum wage. The quest for electoral reforms and constitution review is good. But instead of protesting, many believe that the planners should have taken advantage of the ongoing constitutional amendment and submitted their memoranda to the National Assembly.
#EndSARS protesters are in two categories. There are legitimate and law-abiding protesters. Zlso, some hoodlums killed and maimed during the violent protests. Asking for a blanket release of detainees is illogical. The wheat has to be separated from the chaff. While legitimate protesters who were rounded up and clamped into detention should be released, suspected arsonists who killed policemen, torched council secretariats and courts and destroyed public buses and other infrastructures should be isolated and charged to court.
Ahead of the on-going protest, many leaders urged calm and appealed for dialogue. However, the planners could not be identified on time. They were invisible, trying to cast a sort of shadow. This is strange. The lack of identity aggravated the anxiety. Many people started insinuating that the promoters were agents of aggrieved politicians who lost their bids for political control in last year’s elections.
The time frame for the protest was so disturbing that the organisers’ legal adviser counselled them to reduce it from 10 to three days. His idea was that the mobilisers and organisers of the protest should not end up organising a bad, unnecessary, prolonged and boring agitation. The more the protesters stay on the street, the more the action is susceptible to hijack.
Also, in Abuja, Abeokuta, and Lagos, the protesters had court injunctions to contend with. According to court rulings, they were restricted to certain locations and processions were disallowed. The protesters could not allow themselves to be confined to the locations specified by the authorities in Lagos and Abuja, which were projected as the epicentres. In Ojota, the protesters broke into two groups. A group complied with the ruling by moving into the Gani Fawehinmi Park. Another group decided to stay on the highway, thereby disrupting the flow of traffic. It appears some people harbour the feeling that a protest is unsuccessful until there is violence.
But, how can the procession be legally interpreted? At least, the protesters had to move en mass from a takeoff point to the restricted location.
The major lesson of the partly successful and partly failed protest is that dialogue is better than thoughtless confrontation. It should be explored and exhausted before embarking on protest, and even strike, which may be a weapon of last resort.
Protest organisers should develop better skills for interest articulation and organisation of mass action in a strategic way that will not permit the infiltration of hoodlums who are likely to hijack and derail the objective of the popular action.
Since planners clamour for police protection for protesters, it is imperative, for operational efficiency, that they and the police, who are also citizens, should mutually agree on practical guidelines that will make the protest effective without a damage to the social order. The baseline is the removal of the age-long suspicion between civil society and the police.
As at the time of writing this peace, it is gratifying that the police have handled the protest in a professional manner. There have been provocations. But, security agencies have exercised restraint despite the display of criminal tendencies by protesters in some states.
In the last one year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has focused on the challenges of rebuilding and repositioning the economy. There are more grounds to cover. He deserves the support of all and sundry. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
The onus is still on the government to move speedily to douse tension by constructively engaging the organisers who should now show their faces. There should be an interface with the youth segment and improved communication focusing on the achievements, plans for economic revitalisation and speedy implementation of programmes that would quickly herald a new lease of life.
