Nigeria: Why #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Protests Gained Traction

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An #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protestor in Abuja expresses his view on President Bola Tinabu. Credit: Promise Eze/IPSby Promise Eze (abuja)Tuesday, August 06, 2024Inter Press Service

ABUJA, Aug 06 (IPS) - Thousands of Nigerians have taken to the streets to protest against bad governance, corruption, soaring inflation, and the rising cost of living, in what has been termed "10 Days of Rage" and believed to mirror Kenyan protests organized by the youth.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and a major exporter of crude oil, citizens claim that the benefits of the country's resources do not trickle down to the masses but to a group of corrupt politicians.

The demonstrations, slated for the first ten days of August, gained momentum on social media, with the hashtag #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria accompanied by the slogan "10 Days of Rage."

This follows the protests in Kenya, where young people engaged in six weeks of demonstrations over an unpopular bill that sought to raise taxes. Under pressure, President William Ruto retracted the bill and announced a cabinet shake-up.

There is no organized leadership for the Nigerian protests, but some of the demands include a total overhaul of the Nigerian system, including the reversal of economic policies implemented by President Bola Tinubu from his first day in office. A group is also clamoring for the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, a leader of a proscribed secessionist group who was arrested in Kenya, extradited to Nigeria, and detained since June 2021. In the northern state of Kano there were demands the president step down.

Tinubu eliminated the contentious fuel subsidy and requested the central bank to stabilize the naira and control inflation, which experts say may improve the economy but has ultimately impoverished millions of Nigerians.

To appease Nigerians before protests began, the government hastily approved an increase in the minimum monthly wage from 30,000 naira (approximately USD 18.55) to 70,000 naira (USD 43.29) following pressure from labour unions. Observers note that this raise is negligible in the face of soaring inflation, which has exceeded 34%—its highest level in nearly 30 years—resulting in one of the nation's most severe cost-of-living crises. Politicians promised to slash their salaries by 50% to help solve Nigeria's hunger crisis.

Tinubu also held several closed-door meetings with leaders from across the country to appeal to Nigerians and quell the protests. Job advertisements in government institutions also made headlines.

Agabi Yusuf, a civil rights activist in Sokoto, Northwest Nigeria, argues that all of the "fire brigade"approaches to appeal to Nigerians to stop the demonstrations will not work because "Nigerians are hungry, and this time they have been pushed to the wall."

"You don't expect them to keep their mouths shut," he told IPS.

Brutal Force

Yusuf is worried about the government's brutal response to the protests. Human rights group Amnesty International reported that on the first day of the protests, at least 13 people were killed in clashes between protesters and police forces in various cities. Local media provided differing death tolls, with one newspaper claiming that up to 17 people were killed.

A 24-hour curfew was imposed in many parts of the country, including the northern state of Kano, which is the second-largest state and one of the country's major voting blocs, following the looting of government and public properties there.

People defied the curfew, waving the Russian flag and chanting in the local Hausa language, calling on the president to step down and for the military to take over power. The police responded by killing no fewer than 10 people.

The Sokoto-based Yusuf, who was detained by Nigeria's secret police on July 25 for attempting to organize youth to protest peacefully, said the threats and brutality from the government can only help but make things spiral out of control.

Yusuf told IPS that the security agency claimed he was part of those allegedly plotting to topple the government of Tinubu through the protests.

"The officers were just yelling at me. They locked me up in a very smelly room for about eight hours. In fact, they threatened that if anything went wrong during the protest, I would be held responsible," Yusuf, a leader with the Northern Advocate for Good Governance, said.

Yusuf is not the only one who has been threatened and detained. According to Amnesty International, nearly 700 protesters, including journalists, have been arrested across the country while nine officers have been injured during the protests. The authorities are wary that the protests may mirror the deadly EndSARS demonstrations against police brutality in 2020, which resulted in deaths and injuries after security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters.

Oludare Ogunlana, Professor of National Security at Collin College in Texas, shares Yusuf's views. He told IPS that suppressing people from protesting will result in very deadly repercussions.

"As we are appealing to the protesters to be orderly, we expect the security agencies to be cautious. If you use deadly weapons on people, then it will escalate and become uncontrollable. The people are simply telling the authorities to address their concerns, but the government has been indifferent."

Nuredeen Hassan, a political analyst in Nigeria, argued that though the protests may have been inspired by what happened in Kenya, there were already signs that Nigerians may soon storm the streets. He noted that "people are really angry about the state of the country."

"While Tinubu has only been president for about a year, his party has held onto power for nine years and only a few of the promises made over the years have been fulfilled. The country is getting worse and this has infuriated Nigerians," he told IPS.

In the administrative capital Abuja, where residents are angered about the rising cases of kidnapping for ransom, police chased protesters and threw canisters of tear gas at them, injuring many. Security agencies shot live rounds at journalists and protesters, and indiscriminately arrested dozens.

Yakubu Muhammed, a reporter with Premium Times, a daily paper in the country, told IPS that while he was trying to film police officers arresting people, he was hit with the butt of a gun and dragged into a van. "Despite explaining that I am a pressman, they arrested me and seized my phone. In the van, I met four people. I was released some moments later," he said.

Critics accused the security agencies of failing to protect protesters but rather choosing to give cover to allegedly government-paid thugs who, all over the country, are raising placards saying, ‘Say No To Protest'.

In Nigeria's economic capital Lagos, thugs threatened and chased protesters while the police watched.

The Race For 2027

President Tinubu addressed the country on the fourth day of the protests. He pleaded for an end to the demonstrations but insisted that he would not reverse any of his economic policies.

His speech did not go well with the opposition who slammed him for not addressing the demands of the protesters. A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, said that Tinubu's "speech neglects the pressing economic hardships that have besieged Nigerian families since the very beginning of his tenure."

Ibrahim Baba Shatambaya, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria, is concerned that the President made no reference or condemned the killing of protesters in the country by security forces, despite his promise to hold onto the tenets of democracy and human rights.

"The protest is just one event which is an outcome of the poor performance of the government. If the government does not do the needful in actually reversing the trends of economic hardships in this country, the tendency is that the ruling political party may not likely have a field day come the subsequent round of elections in 2027," Shatambaya said.

Ethnic Tensions

Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State in southeast Nigeria, was criticized by Tinubu's media aide, Bayo Onanuga, for allegedly leading his supporters to organize the protests to remove the president from power. He referred to Obi's supporters as members of the proscribed pro-secessionist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by the detained Kanu. IPOB is agitating for an independent Biafra Republic which would be made up of Nigeria's southeastern states-the home base of the Igbo tribe. Onanuga claimed Obi, a presidential candidate in the last elections, is unhappy that he lost to Tinubu in a very tight race.

Obi has denied this claim and has taken legal action against Onanuga for defamation. Observers like the political analyst Hassan say this is just a reflection of the level of ‘Igbophobia' meted out against the Igbos by some actors in the government and, if care is not taken, could lead to an ethnic crisis.

Organized Igbo-led groups in Nigeria's southeast denounced and pulled out of the protests before they began, fearing there would be a bloody backlash against them if the protest spirals out of control. They fear that, just like in 1966, when thousands of Igbos were blamed and massacred for allegedly leading a revolutionary coup that saw the deaths of many influential leaders and eventually led to a nearly three-year civil war, they could be targeted for actively calling for Tinubu's resignation.

Meanwhile, in the Yoruba ethnic-dominated Southwest, Tinubu's home base, there are growing calls for Igbos to leave the region, which has been condemned by the national government.

Elsewhere in the north, where the protests have become extremely violent with many cities shut down, and workplaces, hospitals, and schools closed, rumors are spreading that the northerners, the majority of whom are from the Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups, are actively protesting against the government because they want Tinubu, a Yoruba man, to step down for one of their kinsmen.

"Some Yorubas are defending Tinubu like they are not seeing this hardship only because he is their kinsman. The Hausas and Fulanis that called protests un-Islamic are now at the forefront of violent protests. They want to make Tinubu a one-term president like the former President Goodluck Jonathan so that another northerner can take over power," alleged Michael John, who lives in Abuja.

Meanwhile, Ogunlala told IPS that while ethnic propaganda may have been instigated by politicians for their self-interest, Nigerians should be concerned about the factors that have made the country difficult to live in.

"Whether you are from the north or the south, suffering and hardship unites all of us. I don't think these protests should be viewed through ethnic lenses but rather should be about how the government should listen to the demands of the aggrieved citizens," he said.

Owolabi Toyibat in Lagos, who is against the violent outcomes of the protests and believes the demonstrations may last for more than 10 days, fears that the protests with their different leaderships may spark riots, especially when the government continues to ignore the demands of the protesters.

"Looting of public and private properties will soon become the norm. While I believe that protesting is our right, there can never be a peaceful protest in Nigeria, and only very few protests have brought tangible changes in this country. Look at the protests in Kenya and how they ended in so much violence and loss of lives. Such will be the case in Nigeria," she told IPS.

Abdullateef Abdullahi in Sokoto thinks differently.

"I believe protest is very essential until our demands are met, as it serves as the only primary means to draw our leaders' attention to the national issues we face and to pressurize them for tangible reform of our nation," he said, adding that "only the urgency of this protest can bring our leaders back to their senses and listen to our plight. We are being treated like slaves while they live in luxury. Does this not call for protests?"