On 1st August, 2024, a 10-day mass protest hash-tagged EndBadGovernance ensued across the country due largely to the rising cost of living and general hunger and insecurity in the land as well as introduction of harsh economic reform policies, particularly removal of oil subsidy and devaluation of the naira by the Tinubu-led federal government. In some cities such as Abuja, Kano, Kaduna and Zaria, the demonstrations escalated into violence and looting following attempts by law enforcement and the Army to quell the protests. This resulted in casualties with over 18 protesters reported dead, and many either injured or arrested. In some states in the North, 24-hour curfews were imposed by the state governments in a bid to restore law and order. The original plan was that the protest should be peaceful and devoid of any form of violence or breach of public peace.
In the first place, what exactly is a peaceful protest? A peaceful protest, also known as nonviolent resistance, is a form of protest in which participants do not engage in any action that could be deemed violent. Participants in a peaceful protest are unarmed, they do not fight back against attempts to stop their actions, and they refrain from damaging any private property.
There have been many examples of peaceful protests throughout history. Their effectiveness has varied wildly based on a variety of factors. Many of these protests are based on a concept called civil disobedience. Civil disobedience means breaking the law in a non-violent way to achieve a desired result. The vast majority of peaceful protests throughout history have still involved breaking some laws because protest movements are, at their core, an attempt to enact change in society. This element of breach of law and order is reflected in the words of Omoyele Sowore, journalist and convener of the RevolutionNow Movement, in his reaction to President Tinubu’s recent address to the nation. Sowore said, “We want the system to be shut down such that they will understand that Nigerians are the real owners of the country, not those in Abuja.”
One classical proponent of non-violent protest was Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), an Indian political activist who opposed British colonial rule in India. He believed in the effectiveness of civil disobedience and led a number of non-violent protest movements. One of these was the Salt March of 1930, in which many people joined Gandhi on a long-distance march to collect salt, which was being heavily regulated and taxed by the British at the time. At the other chaotic end of the two poles of civil disobedience, the world witnessed days of protests in the United States and across the globe over the brutal killing of George Floyd by the police.
The #EndBadGovernance protest was not as peaceful as planned but it generated many ideas some of which were indeed sarcastic. It was suggested that instead of wasting funds on food production and job creation for lazy youths, and listening to protesters, the Federal Government should arrest all of them and build more police cells and prisons to accommodate them to serve as a deterrent to their fellow miscreants! This is exactly the kind of characterization of protesters that fuel anti-government sentiments in what ordinarily should have been a peaceful protest.
Of course, the human condition is more or less an interconnected loop of sorts with its inherent contentions one of which is the struggle for survival or fight for justice by every individual or organism within the loop. So, it is only natural for protests, agitations and discontent to manifest not necessarily as a destabilizing force but as a vital part of the contemporary socio-cultural dynamics and ethos. Simply put, protests are inevitable especially in a society such as ours that is largely inequitable, unjust and imperfect. The irony here is that an attempt to suppress a civil protest may in fact bring it about, or inadvertently escalate it into something of a recrudescent epidemic similar to what happened during the Arab Spring and in Kenya. More importantly, the idea of civil protest ought to be contextualized within democratic tenets and the principle of fairness and equity. This way, engagement, dialogue and positive action provide a better option than propaganda, repression or the usual kinetic pushback by law enforcement. It is important to keep in mind that just because a protest is peaceful does not mean that it does not break any laws.
Beyond that, it is also important to interrogate the divergent idiosyncrasies of protesters. Why do protests turn violent? Is it just because people are hungry and desperate? Is it possible that some persons have a predilection for vandalism and destruction of public property, and pour out onto the street on the slightest provocation? The common parlance in such instances is to say that the protest has been “hijacked” either by hoodlums or political thugs. Needless to add that the hoodlums and the thugs in question may or may not be citizens of Nigeria.
Research has shown that people generally see confrontational protests as unwarranted and ineffectual. People protest because they believe they can make a difference by acting together. Yet, some protests turn violent. Why? Experts have suggested that people who are prepared to use violent confrontation can be psychologically different from those who are not. People who are prepared to adopt violence are more likely to report feelings of contempt for political adversaries whom they hold responsible for wrongdoing. In other words, people who turn violent at protests are more likely to have contempt for authorities they hold responsible; the situation is likely to degenerate further if there is a general sense of despair and helplessness that things would never change. Simply put, if Nigerian youths have confidence in President Tinubu and his policies, the protest would likely not hold even if there is hunger in the land. Psychological research offers some support for this analysis. Where people don’t believe their appeals to authorities will be heard, protesters may be more likely to adopt violent methods of protest. Under these circumstances, people think they have nothing to lose.
Traditional institutions, ethno-religious sentiments may ignite or escalate civil unrest. For instance, some commentators have expressed serious concern that the cultural institution may lose its significance if festivals and cultural practices are over-politicized or weaponized by the custodians against perceived opponents. This was because shortly before the March governorship election in Lagos State, the Oro festival was held within the election period, thus prompting widespread suspicion that the festival was deployed as a tool by the incumbent APC-led administration in the state against opposition political parties. Whether this is true or false is a matter of individual opinion, as it were.
Again, from studies into policing and crowd control, it has been established that heavy-handed treatment from the police is a major catalyst of violent protest. A typical example here is the #EndSARS protest. Put differently, even the most peace-loving activist may come to see violence as more acceptable if the state responds in a way that seems unjustified and disproportionate. Over the past week, some people who initially turned out to express their constitutional right to protest peacefully have found they are now enemies of the state and classified as dissidents in their own country. Under these circumstances, the purpose of the protest suddenly adopts a much broader and sometimes extremist dimension. This to a certain extent explains why some protesters in the North were seen with Russian flags while some were calling for military takeover. These tendencies clearly were unintended at the beginning of the protest and it is only proper that such behaviour should be nipped in the bud.
Certain specific events or actions can also serve as tipping point that spark off social unrest. One recalls the actions of US activist Rosa Parks, who famously refused to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus in 1955, inspiring mass resistance to the racial segregation policies of the time. Here in Nigeria, many protesters were not happy over the humongous amount alleged to have been expended by the Federal Government for the renovation of the Vice President’s official residence in Abuja, at a time citizens could hardly afford three square meals a day. In all, one thing is clear, in order to minimize civil disobedience and violent protests, every responsible government must listen to the people at all times and respond proactively to their concerns and agitations.
*Anthony-Spinks, Functioning Director-General, Delta State Public Procurement Commission, writes from Asaba.
