Only The Dead Protest In Nigeria

 By Kenechukwu Obiezu

Protests may be no pills for the dying, but in Nigeria, they pilfer the dead, or at least, their dainties.

On August 1, Nigeria erupted in protests. The protests which pinched many states of the country hard, some harder than others, were over bread, but quickly bared deep-lying issues, braiding together knots of anger and despair over the state of the country.

The protests were about ending bad governance in the country, and though there is no unanimous agreement over what bad governance is, Nigerians from all over the country and the world were able to join in, jettisoning their divisions and jabbing at the country’s ruling class. 

While the South-East clung to deathly silence and numbing normalcy, the North closed a gnarled fist on chaos. In Kano State, for example, buildings were attacked and looted, with destroyed windows tearing open a window into what the protests were  really about for some people, and what to protest means for others.

If dangerous thieves, ruthless street urchins and vicious vagrants were swept up into the cyclone of protests in Kano, it would be presumptuous to take a barometer to the frustrations funnelled by the protesters, for no one should predict behaviour when an animal is finally at bay.

The government’s reaction to the protests was as predicted, about the most predictable move of the government since May 23, 2023. It showed rare coordination and clarity in corralling security agencies to pummel the protesters with fury. More than a dozen protesters were killed and many others incarcerated.

The protest was originally billed to be for ten days, but the organisers promised it would be unending and unyielding as long as the government paid deaf ears to their demands. Even a nationwide address by the President two days into the protest was interpreted as a meaningless gesture of the deaf. 

However, by the fifth day, the protest had largely petered out, with protest sites largely deserted. Who blinked first? No one would have wanted a repeat of the Lekki Toll Gate shootings of 2020 and gratefully the standoff didn’t get to that. But it was a good democratic exercise. It is difficult to tell if the protesters or political leaders are pumping their fists in secret. If the protesters wanted to test the waters preparatory to larger demonstrations if things don’t improve, then it succeeded. If the government’s aim was to buy more time and get across to the protesters, then it has what it went for.

Generational discontent isn’t new to Nigeria, but with each dawn and twilight that drags Nigeria further into an uncertain future, anger files it teeth waiting to bite. Yet, together with the lessons leeched from the protests, discontent must now be milked to bring about lasting changes in Nigeria.

The current government may be as young as Nigeria’s problems are long in the tooth, but the expiry date for excuses is long due. If he is sincere about his personality and politics, President Tinubu should have appreciated Nigeria’s challenges before he put himself out to be elected as President. If he did not, then everything he stood for throughout his campaign, and since becoming president is a lie — a brutal lie that mocks the trauma Nigerians have endured for many years.

His sole companion in a period during which it seems that Nigerians have abandoned him is time. One year two months is not enough to judge him. He still has more than two years to make a difference. Yet, the tyranny of time is constant in teaching its fury as a foe is as abundant as its friendship as an ally. It will brutally expose him if he is not true to his oath of office.

As for Nigerians who joined the protests, while it is true that it is never too late to start living, Nigeria’s hard-won democracy must never be sacrificed on the altar of expediency and complacency. Sacrifices must be made, but it is not the country’s democracy that should be sacrificed. They must learn to turn up earlier, before it is too late. Accountability must become their  constant contribution to the political conversation in Nigeria. 

Nigeria’s security agencies also need to do some desperate soul-searching or risk losing their soul to the snake oil salesmen who strut Nigeria’s corridors of power. The prompt is: why do the sirens that summon them to confront peaceful protestors with savage urgency and lethal force fall suspiciously quiet when criminals terrorise Nigerians? Why are they always so quick to crush protestors yet scurry away when real criminals surface?

It happened when protesters were crushed at the Lekki Toll Gate in 2020, and it happened again during these protests. When will they wake up and smell the coffee? Can they not see that they exist only to serve a savage conspiracy against the Nigerian people?

As for those who take every opportunity to exhibit their reckless disregard for their lives, it bears reminding that a lawless and loveless country like Nigeria is not worth dying for. Like Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s timeless epic, Things Fall Apart, Nigeria  always sacrifices those who love it to appease its insatiable and insufferable gods.

The government may have succeeded in putting out the fire but the fact that it is powerless against the smoke that has escaped to signal the world, or the ash that have been scattered on the seas to be carried to the ends of the world, should serve up a lesson that unless it cleans up its acts, it (the government) will end up on the pyre.

The protests may have been smothered for now but as long as the issues which triggered them remain, an explosion will never be far away.

*Obiezu is a commentator on public issues