Today in Nigeria

So far, 2019 has largely been a violent year in Nigeria, with spates of insecurity nationwide: electoral violence, insurgency, ransom kidnap, banditry, Shiites protests and cultism. They have tremendous impacts on the developmental prospects of the country, as no serious investor will want to invest in a system ridden with myriads of security challenges.

Recently, Shiites protests in Abuja, resulted in violent clashes, injuries and deaths of a senior police officer and members of the sect. Conveniently, today, a court sitting in Kaduna state has granted the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria, El Zakzaky and his wife a hard-fought leave to travel abroad for medical treatment, thereby  signaling the end of frequent protests for his release by his followers.

Also, today in Nigeria, security operatives are reportedly stationed at various strategic places in Lagos state and other cities across the country to disrupt the planned revolution protests. On Saturday, former presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore was arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS) for planning a revolution which it considers to be a treasonable felony. However, Sowore claims that the protest was against lack of economic implementation of policies, insecurity, bad governance, etc. Reports coming in, have it that security personnel are firing at protesters and manhandling reporters covering the protests.

Historically, revolution threatens the status quo of every society, its government and stability. Irrespective of perceived genuine intentions it aims to achieve, most revolutionary moves are hard fought battle, and it involves loss of innocent lives and destruction of properties.  It cripples economic activities, giving room for many insecurities and most times, leading to continued political instability even after the revolution have been fought and won. The Napoleon-led French revolution of 1789 overthrew the monarchy in France and triggered global decline of absolute monarchical systems and replaced them with republics and liberal democracies. 21st century Africa has witnessed revolutionary incidents with the Arab spring in Tunisia and spreading across Arab-speaking North Africa and Middle East. Although it seemed to install democratic government, the uprisings led to armed conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

Radical reforms have the tendency of triggering unimaginable full-blown violent conflicts. Insecurities are already strife in Nigeria, revolution or what appears like it will be a tipping point of instability in the country. It will also give room for already existing criminalities to operate at full scale under the cloak of revolution. At any rate, this is not the time for radical uprisings in the country. However, government should take cognisance of citizens’ rights to lawful assembly and peaceful protests.

If the efforts of people towards peaceful demonstrations are aggressively frustrated by security agents, it can lead to volatile clashes, which could trigger instability. Using state violence to prevent peaceful protests should be avoided. Government must be proactive to the plight of people, rather than being reactionary to their grievance-driven actions. Delivering good governance, ensuring equitable and timely distribution of public goods, ensuring safety of lives and properties, are few vital ways government can command respect and enjoy loyalty of its people.