Nigeria’s pretence to upholding the basic values that underpin democracy under the Muhammadu Buhari government was once again laid bare at the weekend after security agents clamped down on Omoyele Sowore, the convener of the #RevolutionNow protest movement, asking for good governance. Apparently caught off guard by the rally scheduled for Monday (yesterday), State Security Service agents stormed Sowore’s home in Lagos in the early hours of Saturday and arrested him on allegations of “treasonable felony.”
Essentially, the protesters are demanding that the Buhari government should accelerate its efforts on the raging insecurity in the land, pay the N30,000 minimum wage and create jobs, as the National Bureau of Statistics puts unemployment rate at 23.1 per cent and youth unemployment rate at 55.4 per cent. To press home their demands, the #RevolutionNow movement had planned to embark on mass protests around the country.
Apparently uncomfortable with the planned protests, the SSS arrested Sowore and declared the demonstration illegal. The SSS spokesman, Peter Afunnaya, said, “He has crossed the line, he has threatened the peaceful coexistence, social harmony of Nigeria. There is apprehension, there is anxiety, citizens and residents are worried as to what will happen next.” The Presidency condemned the protesters, arguing that it won a popular mandate in the February elections and that a government could only be changed through the ballot. Similarly, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, labelled Sowore a “troublemaker,” who would face treasonable felony charges.
These are all precarious deductions. Elections cannot be valued above freedom. Democracy can only be more impactful, when it is participatory. A dormant democracy loses its essence completely. The Buhari government’s resort to authoritarian strategy to silence all forms of criticism and dissent is in itself a threat to democracy. Rightly, enlightened voices, including Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate; Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria; singer, Eedris Abdulkareem; and civil society organisations have expressed their backing for the “Days of Rage” protests. Soyinka called Sowore’s arrest a travesty and “a violation of the fundamental rights of citizens to congregate and make their concerns public.” He warned, “That is all so sadly déjà vu. How often must we go through this wearisome cycle? We underwent identical cynical contrivances under the late, unlamented Sani Abacha, when he sent storm-troopers to disrupt a planning session for a similar across-nation march at (the) Tai Solarin School, Ikenne.”
The right to protest has been recognised as truly one of the citizens’ inalienable rights and cornerstones of liberty. The legendary human rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr., called it the “only weapon that we (the people) have in our hands.” The state, therefore, cannot interfere with the people’s right to protest, just because it disagrees with protesters’ views. What the police should do is to strike a balance between these guaranteed rights and the need to protect public safety, security and order. An intimidating police presence does not prevent confrontation with protesters, it fuels it. Jerry Wilson, police chief for Washington D.C., in 1969, following Luther King Jr’s assassination, cautioned, “The use of violence is not the job of police officers.”
In the United Kingdom, apart from spontaneous protests, dissent is institutionalised in the informal protest centre at Hyde Park, London, a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, where protesters are allowed a free rein to vent their views. The responsibility of the state to maintain law and order is not a licence to constrain the right to peaceful assembly and peaceful protest to canvass any cause. Nigeria should not be an exception. Indeed, there are subsisting court rulings in Nigeria recognising the right to peaceful protests.
Despite a subsisting US Supreme Court ruling that states cannot unilaterally secede, the Texas Nationalist Movement engages unmolested in political action, rallies and marches to canvass the independence of Texas. Authorities, however, confront the more radical Republic of Texas Organisation secessionist movement strictly within the law – court orders, fines and litigation following legal due process. Protests are staged regularly when the world’s richest countries’ leaders – G-7, G-8 – and business elite gather. Their right to assemble and protest is guaranteed; police move in only when they threaten the peace, vandalise property or become riotous. In deference to their rights, authorities in London and Davos did not deny marchers the right to protest when President Donald Trump visited the UK and when he attended the World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland respectively.
The Anglo-Irish statesman and philosopher, Edmund Burke, said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to maintain silence.” The culture of street protests is very strong in France, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries in Europe. As long as no laws are broken, peaceful protesters are not harassed. Agitators for Scottish and Welsh independence are not accused of treason in the UK; neither are pro-independence agitators of Quebec in Canada declared public enemies and subjected to Gestapo tactics. Buhari’s increasingly intolerant government should remember that Nigeria is a signatory to some international agreements that guarantee basic rights such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Though these rights are not absolute and allow states some restrictions, peaceful agitation is not a threat to the state. In a country where poverty, joblessness, insecurity and despair prevail, it is difficult to prevent people from ventilating their views.
Incidentally, Buhari and many of his cheerleaders have travelled the slippery route before. As Falana reminded us, “On September 23, 2003, the leaders of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples’ Party, including (Muhammadu) Buhari and Chuba Okadigbo, held a rally in Kano, Kano State to protest the alleged rigging of the 2003 general election.” In November 2014, Buhari, then the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, led other senior party members in a protest rally against insecurity under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Along with Rotimi Amaechi, Ogbonnaya Onu, Bola Tinubu and John Odigie-Oyegun, he accused the government of playing politics with the Boko Haram insurgency. Early in 2014, eight governors that would later move into the APC had rallied in Maiduguri, in support of the then incumbent, Kashim Shettima. The APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, is a product of protests. Indeed, he came to prominence agitating for workers’ rights under different dispensations. Similarly, the APC leader, Tinubu, is well regarded for his contributions to the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12 mandate of the late MKO Abiola through the National Democratic Coalition. Without those protests, democracy would have continued to elude the present occupants of the high offices in the country.
But Buhari’s oppressive temperament and intolerance since he assumed office have never been hidden. Since 2015, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, otherwise known as Shi’ites, Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, and his wife have been incarcerated despite court orders granting them bail. The indiscretion of disobeying the orders has triggered violent and fatal reactions from the Shi’ites in Abuja. A former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is facing a similar fate. Yet, the country is in a democracy, where the rule of law is supposed to be its bedrock. Early this year, soldiers stormed the premises of Daily Trust, an Abuja-based newspaper, carted away its computers and arrested some journalists because of the newspaper’s report on the ongoing battle in the North-East against Boko Haram. Agents of the state – soldiers and police officers – have in the past three years, allegedly killed scores of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra protesters in the South-East. It reached a most comical level in May 2018 when the police rounded up 21 of them, including women, for gathering at the residence of its leader Nnamdi Kalu’s father for prayers and charged them with treason. These are agitations that should be addressed by a root-and-branch reconstruction of governance.
Sowore’s arrest serves as a sad reminder of the country’s inglorious past, where the military held sway and any form of dissent or contrary view was taken as an act of rebellion, which must be swiftly crushed with viciousness; but times have changed and it is imperative to change with the times. Just as coups and unconstitutional overthrow of government are no longer popular, so also are the abuse of power and authoritarianism intolerable.
This is the time for the Nigerian people to stand up against any appearance of tyranny. Periodic elections alone do not define democracy; liberty and welfare of the people do. That is why people must keep the government constantly on its toes. As the former American president and statesman, Thomas Jefferson, said, “When government fears the people, there is liberty, but when the people fear government, there is tyranny.” Buhari should, without any procrastination, order the immediate and unconditional release of Sowore and other activists being detained.
