A movement that has no leader. A protest against police brutality where the police ended up shooting protesters yet they do not retaliate, even against hired thugs. A protest funded by donations, where even the protesters clean up after themselves. This is nothing like Nigeria has ever seen before and the government, without a plan, is reeling.
The Nigeria government does not have an official playbook to address protests. Citizens are usually demure as even the most ruinous government policy ends with criticism on the pages of the newspaper, at drinking houses, and in front of new stands. If it looks like it could get out of hand, the government clamps down on media houses, the police shoot in the air, or the army roll in tanks, and the rancorous din is silenced.
In the early 1990s, Nigerian students began to push the envelope when it comes to agitation following years of misrule by successive military juntas. In the book, “Identity Transformation and Identity Politics Under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria” edited by Attahiru Jega, former INEC boss, revealed how struggles began to evolve over two decades ago.
“In May 1992, another round of popular protests and demonstrations by students rocked the country. The rationale was basically economic- arising from the excruciating social hardships which SAP continued to wrack on the lives of the people and also the deplorable condition of education in Nigeria” he wrote.
Further devaluation of the naira on March 5 which led to an increase in prices of goods and services, the fule crises of April 1992, the profligacy, and extra-budgetary spending of Babangida regime on wasteful pet projects stoked the 1992 struggle.
This rage found an outlet on June 23, 1993, when the Babaginda regime annulled the results of the June 12 elections in a most bizarre manner as well as all the relevant court decisions following the election, suspended NEC through an unsigned terse statement.
Campaign for Democracy (CD) an umbrella organization for no fewer than 40 NGOs/Human Rights Groups, called for a one-week nationwide protest which began on July 5.
Over 10,000 people took the streets in a march, which ended at the gates of Abiola’s compound in Lagos. He climbed to the top of one of the compound’s walls and addressed the crowd, urging Nigerians to be calm without abandoning their commitment to change. But violence broke out on July 6, 1993, protesters blocked three bridges leading from the city’s residential islands to the business center.
Looters attacked the few shops that were open and carried away television sets and stereo systems on their heads, set fire to barricades, and hijacked cars. Protesters built barricades of buses and tires and set them ablaze.
The Nigerian police were called in and they responded by firing tear gas from helicopters and on the ground, they employed sticks and batons. It soon turned into violent and the military took charge, shutting media houses, arresting activists, and shooting into crowds. Some protesters were arrested and jailed and a nation-wide clampdown by the military continued in August, eventually culminating in Abacha seizure of power.
Between 1993 and 1995 there were scores of protests and on every occasion, the police and military continued the worn method of arresting leaders of protests or inducing them to abandon the agitation, attacking protesters to violently shut it down, and when that fails offer token compromise which benefits are soon eroded by even worse policies.
Through the years, Nigerians have given up on that they can truly see change. It is an enduring impact of three decades of abusive military rule which did a number on the people’s psyche. Nigerians turned to the promise of glorious heaven to escape their vapid reality, to suture the open wound wrought on by unconscionable poverty in the midst of plenty. Churches flourished and Islamic scholars preached obsequious devotion to politicians while the people got poorer.
But the Nigerian government was never prepared to deal with a protest they cannot induce its leaders, where a large part of its funding is routed through bitcoins, where tokenism is not enough enticement.
This generation of Nigerians on the streets does not share the reality of growing up with brutal military regimes like those of Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida so they have been spared the psychological trauma of protesting over the roar of bayonets. The betrayal of watching fiery activists join the government and inflict worse pain on them as many fondly recall of the 2012 fuel subsidy removal protests.
This generation of Nigerians, born around the return to civil rule in 1999 are also the biggest victims of misrule by the current and previous governments. They are the most unemployed and underemployed, have some of the worst educational facilities in public schools and lack adequate representation in government.
Anthony Enahoro, one of Nigeria’s foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists, in 1944 at the age of 21, became Nigeria’s youngest newspaper editor ever and in 1953, became the first to move the motion for Nigeria’s independence. In January 1966, Yakubu Gowon became Nigeria’s youngest military chief of staff at the age of 31 and a few months later became the head of state. In 2020, many of Nigeria’s young people have settled for Big Brother Nigeria to animate their passion because when they try, they told they are too young to run. Those who pursue their creative ideas are ambushed by a marauding police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
They are confronted with the brutal reality of a situation where those making all the decisions about their future will not be in it. Worse still, without social protections or benefits their parents enjoyed, their little efforts to chart a sustainable future for themselves are being truncated by a corrupt police force in a systematic abuse.
However, they are matching against a battered police force, poorly trained and ill-equipped that they don’t even have enough riot gear to confront protesters. A police force bereft of all pretense to morality where its officers are accused of being as ruthless as criminals, who have substituted duty to the people for the political class and business elites.
Hence the government is confronted by a march entirely led by young people which has forced the police boss to announce the end of a rogue police unit, SARS, and forced a taciturn president to address a befuddled nation.
“The disbanding of SARS is only the first step in our commitment to extensive police reforms in order to ensure that the primary duty of the police and other law enforcement agencies remains the protection of lives and livelihood of our people,” said Buhari, in a hastily arranged national address on October 12.
Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police, the next day announced the creation of a new Police outfit to take over from the dissolved Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the Nigerian Police Force. The new outfit known as Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT), will fill the gaps arising from the dissolution of SARS, he said.
“Prospective members of this new team will also undergo a psychological and medical examination to ascertain their fitness and eligibility for the new assignment. They are to commence training at the different Police tactical training institutions nationwide, next week,” said Frank Mba, the police spokesman.
But the protesters say this is tokenism. They are asking for not just for a symbolic end of SARS, but complete reformation of the Nigerian police and the bringing to justice its officers who have engaged in extra-judicial killings and sundry crimes against Nigerians.
Worse still, they cite examples of on-going violence against protesters as evidence that they cannot trust the government.
“The government does little or nothing to better the lives of Youths in this country! Nigerian Youths struggle day after day to earn a living for themselves!! We do everything by ourselves yet you people slaughter and murder us!! Unprovoked!! Never again!!! #EndSWAT #EndSARS,” said Debo Adebayo, a television actor and comedian.
Some analysts are urging the government to engage with the protesters in dialogue as a way out of the impasse. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, the legal practitioner asked the government to genuinely address their concerns and urged the police to respect the rights and values of the protesting youths.
“Government should engage them in terms of genuine attempts at addressing the issues,” the lawyer said.
“The first thing is to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The people have become victims of police brutality.”
The protest is taking a toll on the economy as the economy has suffering shocks. Major roads and closed and the threat of violence has led to the closure of businesses in troubled spots. Governments at all levels in Nigeria are reeling as prolonged protests show indications that it could morph into widespread anarchy unless genuinely addressed.
The Nigerian youths have stirred from a long slumber to realise the potency of their will and things will never be normal again. Long told they were ‘lazy, uncouth and rudderless’, now they have found a cause to animate their rage – and they are not backing down.
