Beyond the hunger protests
AS the dust settles on the August hunger and #EndBadGovernance protests, it is plausible to clinically appraise the country-wide demonstrations to avert the recurrence of the no-victory, all-vanquished outcome the protests left behind.
The protests undoubtedly exposed the yawning frailties in the country’s governance mechanisms. The demonstrations were grossly deficient in planning and execution on the part of the protesters, and puerile in management and engagement on the side of the government. This threw up novelties and predictable outcomes that ultimately resulted in needless fatalities, wild violence, and huge economic losses.
Killings, arson, looting, harassment, and arrests defined the protests that started on a peaceful note country-wide on the first day. Amnesty International says 21 protesters were shot dead during the protests.
The local media report that scores of journalists were molested with 31 attacked in one day, 175 protesters sustained varying shades of injury while 1,154 demonstrators were arrested. The police say they arrested 1,135 protesters.
The Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise estimated during the protests that, “if not properly managed,” Nigeria stood to lose N400 billion per day. With the mindless looting, arson, and vandalism of private and public property that later attended the protests, the loss would be in the region of trillions of naira.
All these frightening fatalities and losses, coupled with dastardly novel acts, including the waving of the Russian flag, foreign interference, unknown sponsors, and the use of underage protesters, later confirmed the government’s fear and warning that the protests might be hijacked.
This repeats the hijacking of the October 2020 #EndSARS protests, which started peacefully at the Lekki Tollgate. After the invasion and killings by the police and military, the protests turned violent.
This time, the government’s strategies were pedestrian, to say the least. Besides its contemptuous timing, coming on the fourth day of the protests, President Bola Tinubu’s broadcast was hollow and wide of the mark.
Instead of addressing the core demands of the protesters, the broadcast reeled out the achievements of his administration, which were already in the public space before the protests. This strategic failure aggravated the violence.
Worse still, rather than bring up workable crisis management strategies, all state actors, including security agencies, were talking tough, issuing threats, and heating the polity.
The introduction of pro-government protests is a sad commentary on the capacity of the government to handle protests. While pro-government protesters in Port Harcourt demonstrated unrestricted and unmolested, the security operatives killed, harassed, and arrested their counterparts across the country.
Some of the protesters’ demands—the call for a reversal of the petrol pump price to N195 per litre, an unemployment wage, and immediate employment for youths—were unrealistic. Future protests must pass the test of thorough planning, realistic demands, and painstaking execution in the national interest.
Security agencies must engage in relevant training and apply the best crisis and protest management practices. The London 2012 riots, for instance, witnessed violence, including killings and looting, but the security operatives isolated the perpetrators and brought them to justice with the aid of CCTV footage. The government must learn a lesson from this technology-aided scenario.
Protest is not criminality. It is a constitutional endeavour that must not degenerate into violence.
The police must ensure civility and best practices in prosecuting the arrested protesters by respecting their rights to a fair hearing.
The government must fish out the sponsors and masterminds of the hijackers of the protests and prosecute them to avert a recurrence.
With the protesters’ demands grossly unmet and the government’s failed management of the crises, Nigeria is only postponing the evil day. Therefore, the government must promptly implement robust strategies to prevent “the fire next time.”
