The anatomy of an ambiguous protest

The prevailing burning and looting in the name of resistance against bad governance exposes the tragicomic inclination of our nation. Days after a similar protest in far-away Kenya brought the government to its knees and a similar gathering in Uganda tested the strength of the state, an anonymous or amorphous group announced it was hosting a protest to end bad governance. Its premise is how government policies have increased suffering of citizens to levels not known since independence.

Apparently, the ideas that inflicted this unprecedented suffering on the people were foisted on candidate Tinubu by his predecessor. It became a campaign issue when Tinubu’s two closest rivals, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, promised to end the phantom fuel subsidy that had been minting billionaires while impoverishing the state. Tinubu is too proud to go back on this move that has ruined the people he swore to take care of.

Initially, the identity of those proposing the protest was unknown and only Omoyele Sowore appeared to be aligned with the plan. With the Sani Abacha rule book on how to end protests in the Aso Rock archives and several pro-Abacha personae in Tinubu’s kitchen cabinet, government believes it could wing and win this one.

Weeks before D-day, the question was who was left to hit the streets in support of the protest. All the usual suspects from the three geopolitical zones had issued statements denying acquiescence or connivance.

The government thought it was winning; its conviction is that it had won the highly contestable results of the election that gave Tinubu power. It, therefore, marshalled its chief propagandists to go to war with the first suspect, Peter Obi, as the mastermind of the protest. Initially Obi must have laughed it off until it became clear to him that granted the prevailing circumstances, silence could be construed to mean guilty as charged. He stridently issued a denial of sponsorship but aligned with the principles behind the protest as a fundamental right. His main rival, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, agreed with this notion.

With all the usual suspects denying being the masterminds, government turned the binocular of suspicion to Nigerians abroad. This group was fingered as heavily sponsoring the End-SARS protests in Lagos. Unlike Atiku, Sowore and Obi, they have dollarised influence to threaten any regime. The fault line here is that they are amorphous, unorganised and largely unaffiliated to any political party or ideology. Above all, they are beyond the sphere of influence or control of state power while being close enough to western nations and their powerful media. They present a technological danger to the reputation of any unpopular regime or rogue state.

Given this scenario, it appeared that the government concentrated its resources on getting regional associations to deny support for the protest. The denials came from the three geopolitical regions, amply hyped on mainstream media.

Since the outcome of the elections and the riots that came with it, especially in the South West, the attitude of the southeast to the rest of the country has been like – you inflicted this guy on the rest of Nigeria, tackle any grievances you have with him without us. Unfortunately, this played out again last week when Ibos were targeted and isolated from the protest and some of their homes and businesses vandalised as attacks against them continued on social media.

In the North that has not remained the same since the appointments of north-central officers into the security backbone of the Olusegun Obasanjo government sparked off stiff opposition by the so-called core North, Middle Belt groups never miss an opportunity to assert their uniqueness and readiness to go it alone if needed. The attitude here has been a not-in-our-name stance. Little wonder then that they too denied involvement in spearheading the protest.

This was what left the average bystander with the big question as to who was really in favour of the protest and who was in support? That was the position until the real organisers unveiled themselves. Apparently, the government did not know who these people were and obviously could not stop their plans.

It tried using state actors – governors, ministers (ex-and serving) and friendly or party legislators to try and stop the protest. This attempt only spooked this political class, who reacted first by preparing themselves and their family members to escape from the country in case things went down south. Airport officials reported an unusual movement of state officials leaving the country in large numbers in the days prior to the protest. This is a clear indication that even those who were the architects of the hardship in the country and who benefit the most from a disorganised state have no trust in the system to protect them.

In the end, it was the powerful groups supposedly with influence that were locked out in the cold. They left the field open to those protesters on whom they had no control. This explains the resort to chaos and anarchy especially in parts of the country where teenagers, almajirai and lowlifes took over the protest targeting public buildings, institutions and agencies as well as homes and businesses. In a state of anarchy, crash opportunists always seized the opportunity.

Nobody questions the propriety of the protest currently. Nigerians are on the brink of life and death, and many would prefer to end it by state-sponsored violence against a legitimate protest than resort to hara-kiri. A new inspector-general is in place whose retirement age has just been reviewed. Here is an opportunity for him to prove his appointees right. The big question is what the aim of this protest would be? A reversal of policies is out of the question for a president whose panacea is to reel out his supposed policies as panacea to the current logjam rather than policy reversal. If the stalemate persists, heaven helps the outcome on Nigeria and its pseudo-democracy.

 Adieu Onyeka

Journalist, broadcaster, singer songwriter, humanist; our own Onyeka Onwenu, the Elegant Stallion, literally fell July 30, after performing at a friend’s birthday bash in Lagos. Onyeka, as she is fondly called, survived a seemingly blighted childhood to reveal a Midas touch. She passed through two iconic American media institutions to start her working life with a stint at the United Nations before returning home to Nigeria. As a staff of the Nigeria Television Authority, she challenged authority with her production – Nigeria – A Squandering of Riches exposing the underbelly of corruption on Africa’s most populous nation.

Dropping the reportorial microphone, she embraced the performance stage revealing her strength as an all-round performer – singer songwriter and performing artist. She invoked activism into her music with lyrics laced with cultural idioms and folklore. She mingled this with acting for which she won continental recognition and breezed briefly into politics and the public space. Despite drawing us to her with music, dance and drama Onyeka kept her private life private, getting married outside her race and religion and raising two strong boys in the process.

She dropped the mike just shy of her 73rd birthday, spurning a flurry of positive tributes. Dead to us but not to art, politics and the professions. We pray God’s comfort for a nation and friends in mourning. Adieu, our Elegant Stallion.