PREVIEW
Demonstrations have continued in the northern cities of Kaduna and Kano where sentiment against the President is highest
The planned 10 days of protests in Nigerian cities starting on 1 August slowed down on Monday after at least 21 people were killed, mostly by police bullets according to local rights organisations. But the protest convenors in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja said another round of demonstrations would begin on Wednesday.
The protests have continued in the northern cities of Kaduna and Kano where sentiment against President Bola Tinubu is highest. In Katsina, the home city of former President Muhammadu Buhari, demonstrators burned down the headquarters of the ruling All Progressives Congress on Tuesday – after removing everything of value from the building.
Police authorities say seven people died and have denied responsibility for the bloodshed. After mass demonstrations late last week were met with a tough police response, numbers of activists were down to the low hundreds in Lagos and Abuja on 5 and 6 August.
Activists were hoping to use similar tactics to those used by the Generation Z movement in Kenya. The ‘Days of Rage’ slogan was borrowed from Kenya as was the determination to have genuinely nationwide demonstrations. But they have not yet matched the scale and sophistication of the #EndSars protests against police brutality in October 2020.
Unlike Kenyan counterpart William Ruto, who appeared to have been genuinely blindsided by the scale of public anger at corruption, poor governance and the high cost of living, President Tinubu made commitments to halve his own salary and more than double the minimum wage to 70,000 naira (US$46) before the start of protests (AC Vol 65 No 16,Days of rage protests test Tinubu’s economic plans).
Meanwhile, the state security response is eerily similar to Ruto’s. Police in Nigeria said they had arrested nearly 700 people in the first two days of the protests, and accused them of armed robbery, arson and destroying property.
Tinubu has shied away from describing the protestors as ‘criminals’ but many of his political allies have been free to do so without censure. The hardline Minister of the Federal Capital Nyesom Wike, widely blamed for serial political violence in Rivers State where he was governor, dismissed the protestors as ‘terrorists’. The imposition of curfews in parts of the country has also been effective in stifling protests.
In a televised address on 4 August, Tinubu offered little more beyond promises of ‘listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens’ – none of which seems to have helped his plummeting support in Nigeria. In Kenya, Ruto’s ratings fell after he labelled the protestors as ‘criminals’ in the wake of the storming of parliament on 26 June.
It would be a mistake for Tinubu and his allies to think that the protests can be snuffed out in a few days – even with the targeted use of lethal force to deter protestors. Rallies and demonstrations are set to continue in the north and activists speak of stepping up the pressure again on Thursday.
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