Echoes of EndSARS: Scores killed, army threatens action as nationwide protest enters day 5

At first, many were unclear about how the events would go. At the weekend however, not less than 17 individuals had reportedly been killed, while over 100 had been arrested in the nationwide protest against hunger and bad governance, tagged ’10 Days of Rage’ and #EndBadGovernance,’ which began on Thursday, August 1, and with the security services being accused of using excessive force in confrontations with the protesters.

The protest, which the promoters had insisted would be non-violent, had however witnessed looting and destruction of properties in states like Kano, Niger, Borno, Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Jigawa, prompting state governments to hurriedly impose curfews, while the police embarked on mass arrest of protesters.

The crackdown slowed the protest, but it has not stopped the protesters, frustrated by mounting economic challenges in a country that has been grappling with a cost of living crisis since President Bola Tinubu ended the petrol subsidy regime on his inauguration day in May 2023. Billed to last for 10 days, the protest entered its 5th day this Monday, with thousands storming the steets of Kaduna, Abuja, and Ojota in Lagos, among other states.

The country’s inflation rate rose to 34.19 percent in June 2024 — up from 33.95 percent in May, according to NBS figures. On its part, the crown jewel in the unsavoury basket, food inflation, surged to 40.87 percent in the month under review as prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages soared.

Hunger has become widespread. Unemployment has worsened with a number of companies, including Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, PZ Cussons, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, ShopRite, Equinor, Bolt Food, among others, exiting. Indian, Lebanese and Chinese firms are touted as coming in the replace the exiting Western ones, but they operate with leaner top staff, much of whom are expatriates from their respective countries, while thriving on indigenous factory workers who are paid slave wages.

In a nationwide address on Sunday, President Tinubu blamed past administrations for the current economic challenges, noting that for decades, “our economy has remained anaemic and taken a dip because of many misalignments that have stunted our growth.”

The president said that just over a year ago, “our dear country, Nigeria, reached a point where we couldn’t afford to continue the use of temporary solutions to solve long-term problems for the sake of now and our unborn generations.”

The President said he’s heard protesters loud and clear, calling for dialogue and an immediate end to the nationwide protests, while also appearing to blame the opposition.

“I hereby enjoin protesters and the organisers to suspend any further protest and create room for dialogue, which I have always acceded to at the slightest opportunity,” he affirmed, noting that the country requires all hands on deck and needs all citizens, regardless of age, party, tribe, religion or other divides, to work together in reshaping its common destiny.

But several commentators, including Wole Soyinka, Atiku Abubakar, among others, say the president didn’t address the demands of the protesters who had ahead of the commencement of protest, listed 14 key policy reforms the administration should pursue, including reinstatement of fuel subsidy regime, establishment of living wage, tackling of insecurity, electoral reforms, release of EndSARS protesters, a new constitution, the declaration of a state of emergency in education, a ban foreign medical trips, reduction of waste in government, among others.

“As one of millions of Nigerians who were in church when you (Tinubu) delivered your late-in-coming Speech to Citizens on the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria protests, let me loudly say it was terribly underwhelming to read,” noted former Minister of Education of Nigeria, Obiageli Ezekwesili in a post on X on Sunday.

“Your Speech reads like a page from your party manifesto and terribly failed to connect to what our Citizens on the Streets are angry and protesting about.

“Your speech is quite a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and outline of convincing evidence-based actions that you and your @NigeriaGov will immediately take to address the priority #BadGovernance concerns.

“Your Speech was sadly again written out of a mindset that is focused on “getting back at our enemies”. Imaginary enemies at that! No true Leader has the luxury of having “enemies” among their Citizens.”

Ezekwesili further reminded Tinubu to stop the Police from killing innocent protesters and sanction those doing underwise.

“As we remember and pray for families of all our citizens mauled down or maimed for demanding an End to Bad Governance, let me call on you@Officials to immediately instruct the IG@PoliceNG and his men to “STOP KILLING PEACEFUL PROTESTERS NOW!”

“Also fish out all law enforcement personnel that have killed and maimed citizens and ensure they are sanctioned as a deterrence to their colleagues,”she added.

On its part, the Tinubu administration recently reached an agreement with organised labour to raise minimum wage from N30, 000 to N70,000, even as food palliatives have been reportedly distributed in different states.  Its spokespersons tout these as part of efforts at ameliorating the hunger crisis. But the impact of these efforts have been very minimal, in a country where a bag of rice has gone from N7,000 in 2014 to N85,000 in 2024, and many have vowed to keep protesting until their voices are heard.

“The protest was initially slated for 10 days and like we said, it may go beyond that, depending on the response we get from the government. But it doesn’t seem that we’re dealing with a responsible government. So, the government should expect it to go beyond 10 days, said Damilare Adenola, director of mobilization, Take it back movement, one of the civil society groups promoting the protests, on Friday night.

Lessons From Kenya

Recent protest over a controversial Finance Bill in Kenya forced the country’s president, William Ruto, to withdraw the bill, and commit to fiscal responsibility. But that failed to assuage the protesters who had become upset over the killing of their comrades by the police. Protests have continued with the protesters now demanding that the president must step down.

So far, not even his decision to sack his cabinet, fire the the country’s police chief and form a unity government with the opposition, has helped his cause. The youths, mostly GenZ persist with their protest, insisting that the president must step down, with the attendant destruction it has brought to the hitherto relatively stable East African economy.

Nigerian authorities particularly fear that the Kenya scenario could play out in the country if the protest continues, and have accordingly continued to issue warnings, even as a crackdown on protesters and its promoters continues.

Speaking at a press conference a fortnight ago, Edward Buba, director of defence media operations, argued that the “contemporary context” of the planned protest in Nigeria is to “shadow what is happening in Kenya,” warning that the armed forces would not condone anarchy in the guise of a nationwide protest.

Buba claimed that, “The aim of the protest is to show you what is happening in Kenya. And I would add that what is happening in Kenya in terms of the protest, one, is violence. Two, it remains unresolved as we speak now.

“So did you see from that? Based on what has been gathered, there are plans by some unscrupulous elements to hijack this protest and make sure that it turns violent. When it turns violent, I want to tell you what we have seen as it would likely happen. Indeed, we need to count our blessings.”

On Saturday, protesters filed out again in Ojota in Lagos and the MKO Abiola stadium in Abuja where they were pressured by fumes from teargas canisters shot by security operatives. Moments later, masked operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) stormed the venue. Many were reportedly arrested.

On Sunday, thugs beat up protesters who gathered at Ojota in Lagos to continue to press home their demands.

In Yobe, at least 11 people , mainly youths were arrested on Saturday morning as police in the state began clamping down on protesters.

The authorities have been quick to blame the violence on ‘hoodlums’ taking advantage of the protest to cause mayhem. On Friday, the Nigerian military again , threatened to intervene if the violence recorded in some states escalates. Gen. Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff, who issued the threat during a press conference in Abuja, said the military would step in to control the looting and violence being witnessed in some parts of the country.

Should that happen, it will be déjà vu. The EndSARS protest of October 2020 came to an abrupt end on the night of 20 of October when soldiers opened fire on protesters at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos. Till today, the number of people killed remains subject of controversy. Some accounts put it at over 12, and some families continue to search for loved ones in the aftermath of the protest that recorded scores of deaths and destruction in many states of the country. But there’s been no official acknowledgement of the dead. The Nigerian Army initially denied involvement in the shooting, but later stated that it had deployed soldiers to the toll gate on the orders of the governor of Lagos State.

In July last year, the Lagos government approved the mass burial of 103 corpses recovered in the aftermath of the protests, which was the closest the country got to an official hint of deaths recorded during the days-long events.

But the EndSARS protest had only lasted for a few days before thugs dropped off in suspected government vehicles and BRT buses started to disrupt proceedings, which culminated in the protest turning violent in many instances, and provided the authorities with the excuse to intervene. Then President Muhammadu Buhari had alleged that the protesters wanted to carry out regime change.

This same allegation of regime change has been raised by many supporters of the Bola Tinubu administration, which has perhaps informed its response. Speaking on Channels TV on Thursday night, Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, dismissed the protesters as “sore losers” who should wait till 2027 to seek power. He has since denied making the comment, despite video evidence. Alleged pro-government thugs have been filmed attacking protesters in Lagos, while a number of individuals who staged protests to demand that there should be no hunger protest have been caught on tape confessing to being induced financially.

The early intervention of the state, including the alleged inducement of clerics, civil society groups and ex-Niger Delta agitators to kick against the planned protest may have helped to slow things down. Many more people have not trooped into the streets as was the case during the more spontaneous EndSARS protest which the then Buhari administration had similarly tried to downplay and shut off. But with the economic situation getting more dire, and with the promoters already vowing to continue with the protests, there is no telling exactly what the days ahead could bring.

During his press conference on Friday, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) admitted that while he was aware of the “grievances” of the protesters on the challenging economic difficulties in the country, he however insisted that they must show understanding.

He stressed that the military and other security agencies “will not fold” their arms and “allow this country to be destroyed.”

He said, “The Armed Forces and the entire security agencies will not stand by and see that to continue. We want to warn those that are recalcitrant; those that don’t want to listen that we will not fold our arms and allow this country to be destroyed.

“We will take action and the action we will take, we will take it professionally. Anyone that is caught will be taken to court and will be dealt with.

“There are a bunch of people who believe that it is only through this medium that they will be able to loot, steal and destroy. And that is what they tried to do yesterday but we have arrested most of them that broke into places to steal and they will be prosecuted accordingly.

“We are also going behind to ensure that we also identify those that are involved; there are individuals who are sponsoring them, pushing them to do this, we are going after them,” he added.

Musa’s warnings failed to stop further protests at the weekend, and for Inibehe Effiong, a human rights lawyer who has offered his services to those arrested during the protest, the protest will only end when leaders begin to listen to the citizens.

“I think Nigeria should no longer continue to live in a country where we have leaders who don’t listen to what the people are saying. This protest has lasted for days now, but Tinubu has not spoken to Nigerians. I want him to address the demands of Nigerians,” he said.

“What are the demands of the protesters? You said people should leave the streets, but have you listened to them? The president has 48 ministers, the highest in the history of our country. At a time that the country doesn’t have money. If Tinubu is serious, it shouldn’t take him one hour to reduce the number of ministers to 37. When protesters say you should reduce cost of governance, these are actions that can be taken within 24 hours.

“People say they want electoral reform to make electronic transmission of results mandatory, draft a bill to that effect and send to the National Assembly. If the president is serious, he should have started addressing these demands, including the economic policies that have rendered Nigerians jobless, homeless and hungry.”

Earlier on Friday when the demonstration began at the MKO Abiola Stadiumin Abuja, protesters refused to be confined to a spot as directed by an FCT High Court order, and also ignored police warnings against holding a procession.

As tension mounted and protesters decided to stage a walk, they were ambushed near the National Hospital area, and dispersed with tear gas and live ammunition. Five injured protesters said they jumped into the bush when the shooting started.

But the protesters remained defiant. One of the protesters who gave his name as Yusuf vowed that they would not be intimidated.

The Federal Capital Territory Police Command, in a statement on Friday, directed hospitals and medical personnel to report anyone who presented himself with gunshot wounds to the nearest police station.

The command’s spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, noted that policemen engaged some hoodlums in “a fierce gun duel”, with many escaping with gunshot injuries.

According to her, the hoodlums took advantage of the hunger protest to embark on extortion and assault of innocent citizens along the Lugbe end of the FCT.

Following breakdown of law and order, at least five northern states of Kano, Borno, Katsina, Yobe and Jigawa declared curfew to restrict the movement of residents.

In Jigawa State on Thursday, Governor Umar Namadi imposed a 24-hour curfew.

The curfew was, however, relaxed on Friday for two and a half hours for Muslims to observe the Juma’at prayers. Namadi said the violent turn of the peaceful protests was unacceptable and vowed to prevent further chaos.

The South South States of Delta; where a handful of protesters paraded a mock coffin of President Tinubu; Bayelsa, where pro and anti government protesters clashed on Thursday; Akwa Ibom, where police dispersed protesters with teargas on Friday; Rivers, where Governor Siminalayi Fubara engaged with protesters to be peaceful; and Edo that has not witnessed serious issues, have remained largely peaceful.

The South East states largely kept cold on the protest altogether, as many organisations, including Ohanaeze Ndigbo, had demanded given that even before now, there had already been concerns of Igbo-targeting. There was little movement on Thursday in the zone, but economic activities resumed on Friday, through the weekend.

‘Police arrested 1,154 protesters, killed 21’

Meanwhile, the Organised Civil Society of Nigeria said on Friday that according to data obtained through its Civil Society Protest Monitoring Situation Room, 21 persons had been killed, while 1,154 others were arrested by the police on the first day of the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests.

In a press release signed by the Head of the Coordinating Secretariat of the United Action Front of Civil Society, Olawale Okunniyi, on Friday, the group stated that 175 persons sustained injuries.

Okunniyi stated that 18 states, including Lagos, Yobe, Zamfara, Borno and the FCT recorded cases of police brutality and violence, while only eight states, namely Plateau, Taraba, Ebonyi, Edo, Benue, Nasarawa and Ogun, recorded peaceful protests.

The group said the data, received from field volunteers, revealed contrary realities to the assurances given by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, adding that the “reckless” show of force by the Police was “unacceptable.”

However, some of the official figures released by the police showed that more than 500 protesters were arrested in at least six states.

Out of the figure, 320 protesters were arrested in Kano, 18 in Yobe, 50 in Katsina, 81 in Sokoto, five in Abuja, and 25 in Kaduna, as confirmed by the police commands in the states.

Meanwhile, a coalition of lawyers has secured the release of 15 protesters arrested by the police in different parts of Lagos.