As a media practitioner, I drove around Lagos on the first day of the protest, ready to identify myself as being part of the long suffering masses should I meet any unyielding motley crowd. But I encountered no such barricades.
That first day was a bit quiet as most people stayed indoors out of caution, but the roads were not totally deserted. Everyone was going about his / her business peacefully.
On the second day, as I write this report, the streets got back into their groove even if you still have a feeling of some kind of public holiday, given the modesty of human and vehicular presence on the roads. Some banks even opened for business although there were visible measures taken to restrict the number of customers allowed inside the banking hall per time.
In all, there’s no doubt that Lagos had put the bitter lessons of the #Endsars protests to better use. This time the ubiquitous posters echoing the slogans : #Somolu Says No To Violent Protests, # Dont Destroy Lagos, # No Protests in Lagos Island etc along with the quietness in many streets are clear evidences of how effective the government ‘s strategy had been.
At the few areas where people gathered with placards, like the notorious Lekki Toll Gate or the Freedom Park Ojota, the protesters were peaceful, with loud music at the latter grounds to entertain the restless spirits of the youth.
Thank God they conducted themselves pracefully. I dare say it was in their own interests. Any semblance of violence would have been met with a bloody backlash, most likely not from the police but the vigilant anti-protests locals scattered across the various Lagos communities who had seriously bought into the government’s PROPAGANDA that the massive destructions of the # Endsars protests in the state were spareheaded majorly by non-Lagosians.
Quite significantly, media reports indicate that the current protests were not widespread in the sense of a nation-wide ‘armagedom’ as many had feared, although States like Niger, Borno and Kano recorded huge losses including as many as 17 lives on the first day of the protests.
This fatalities mirrored my own fears. Which mass protest ever ends without casualties? Your guess is as good as mine who the victims would likely be.
In other locations, we read that crowds which gathered at different locations in Abuja were dispersed with teargas. Travellers on some major inter-city highways like Suleja -Kaduna were delayed by blockages. It is yet to be seen how the remaining days would go.
However, I am ready to bet that rather than gather momentum, the current protests are more likely to fizzle out as the days go by.
While the reasons for today’s Hunger Protest were far more telling on more Nigerians than the cause of the #Endsars agitations, it is safe to assume that the latter’s utterly destructive outcome is not about to be replicated here now, nor anytime soon. No legitimate administration watches and allow a repeat of such condemnable mayhem that benefitted neither the government nor the people at the end of the day.
In any case, politics is local. If a state is drenched in widespread violent protests, it speaks volumes of that state government’s unpopularity, in a sense, rather than those at the centre.
In closing, in a general sense, there’s no doubt that the political class are messing up our democracy. Whatever challenges those at the helm of affairs might be grappling with, those in open and clandestine opposition would appear to be more interested in escalating the missteps than profer credible alternatives. Ours is like a house utterly divided against itself. How long this contraption remains standing is a matter of conjecture.
Back to the moment. Even if the current protests end without any immediate severe consequences to those in power, one can only hope – for their sake, that they have drawn enough lessons to make them address the hunger in the land expeditiously. The humongous allowances our elected officials are reportedly earning and the fact that they all continue to flaunt a lifestyle that’s completely shielded from the austerity their governance has fostered on the people is a ticking time-bomb.
When the push gets to shove, no truly angry man would be dancing to any music with placards in hands.
Prince Debo Luwaji
Public Affairs Analyst
