Nigerian protesters close Africa’s largest city and escalate confrontation with the government

The Lagos protests were the largest in a series of demonstrations Monday in the West African nation of 206 million people that appeared to significantly raise the temperature between protesters and the government.

The Nigerian army was deployed at various intersections in the capital Abuja at the sites of a planned protest, while police fired tear gas, days after local authorities issued an executive order banning demonstrations in the city. Over the weekend, Defense Minister Bashir Magashi warned protesters against the violation of national security and Information Minister Lai Mohammed said the government would not “fold its arms and allow the country to fall into anarchy. “

Protesters in Lagos accuse the government of deploying agitators to create a pretext for a crackdown, a charge the government denies.

“I know they will try to bring in the military to scare us,” said Gbenga Abioye, a student participating in a protest in Lagos blocking access to Murtala Mohammed airport, where young people chanted with raised fists as the national anthem blared through. of small speakers. . “We are not going to fight. But we will stay in the streets ”.

The mounting rhetoric raises the possibility of a clash between President Muhammadu Buhari and a protest movement that has evolved from a single-issue campaign to a more diffuse protest against alleged government corruption, economic mismanagement and nepotism.

The protests have erupted in a context of deep economic malaise, as falling oil prices and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic have hit the Nigerian economy, which is not keeping up with rapid population growth. More than 55% of Nigerians are underemployed or unemployed and youth unemployment is even higher, according to official statistics. More than 90% of Nigerians work in the informal sector, meaning that the government shutdown of major cities to curb the spread of the new coronavirus deprived tens of millions of people of the cash they need to survive.

Buhari, a former general who briefly ruled Nigeria at the head of a military junta in the 1980s before returning as civilian president-elect in 2015, has deployed the army against other protests in recent years, including in 2018, where government forces they killed 45 people. Shiite Muslims marching to support an imprisoned cleric. He has urged protesters to give the government time to address their concerns.

The current protests began with demands to ban a notorious police unit, the Special Anti-Theft Brigade, or SARS, which has long been accused of extortion, torture and extrajudicial killings. The largely peaceful protests, organized under the hashtag #EndSARS, garnered endorsement from celebrities and business leaders around the world, including rapper Kanye West and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who urged people to support protesters donating bitcoins.

Nigerian diaspora communities in the US and Europe have witnessed street protests in solidarity with a movement that has sought to overcome the country’s traditional sectarian and economic divisions.

“This protest is different because it is the first time that Nigerians speak with one voice and the government finds nothing to divide us,” said Chalse Inoji, a popular Nigerian comedy actor, who was marching draped in a Nigerian flag. “EndSARS is a rallying point for all the years of bad government, mismanagement and institutional arrogance. We are calling for a total reform of our political system ”.

The Nigerian government agreed to disband the police unit and establish a new elite police force, SWAT, whose officers would be trained by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But tensions have continued to rise in the streets across the country as protesters vow not to withdraw until promises are fulfilled and those arrested in recent demonstrations are released by the government.

In Edo state, authorities imposed a curfew after hundreds of prisoners escaped from a jail amid protests. Elsewhere, groups of men armed with clubs and bats attacked groups of protesters camped at strategic intersections.

The protests are being driven by young people in Nigeria, a country with an average age of 18 and one of the fastest growing populations in the world, which is projected to overtake the US to become the third largest. by 2050. The demonstrations fit into an emerging global pattern of youth-led calls for change from Hong Kong to Sudan and Chile.

The youth-led protests in Nigeria “could begin to reshape the political landscape,” said Amaka Anku, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy.

“The current generation of Nigerian youth has paid very little attention to politics to date … That reality is likely to change now as young protesters become more aware of their political power,” he said.

Within the protest movement, fractures are emerging between those who want to keep the focus on police brutality and those who want more fundamental change.

“The protests’ greatest strength has also become their greatest responsibility, which is the complete absence of centralized leadership,” said David Huneydin, a government-critical journalist who has marched in the protests. “Now a military intervention is very likely.”

The protests were no longer about police brutality and had become political, said a senior Nigerian security official. “This is a platform that is being hijacked by people who oppose the government. It is well funded. “

There were signs that Buhari’s allies were hardening their position against the protesters. Governors of the Muslim-majority north of Nigeria have rejected the complete dissolution of SARS, emphasizing that it has been instrumental in fighting the Boko Haram insurgency and should be reformed rather than eliminated.

Nigeria’s military said over the weekend that it would begin a two-month national exercise, Operation Crocodile Smile, the first time that the annual exercise, typically focused on the oil-producing region of the Delta, will be nationwide.

The Lagos protesters have pledged to continue the closure of the city for three days. “These protests happen in phases and we are not ready to get off the streets anytime soon,” said Uche Nnadi, a 36-year-old Nigerian actor. “We are tired of bad leadership.”

Write to Joe Parkinson at [email protected]