On the National Protest, By AM Ashafa
There has been nothing left that has not been said for and against the proposed nation-wide protest. The government had mobilised all sorts of people and groups to wade in against it. In the first place, mercenary anti-protests amongst religious groups, youth groups, women, tribal groups were brought or mobilised, allegedly spending a lot of national resources to campaign against the protest with some recorded successes and failures. In fact, the government pointed at the opposition and other Jacobins as bringing behind the protest with the intent of taking over the government. Certainly, it may sound like yahoo yahoo’s political argument. What has not been said much is that both the government and protesters are patriotic. The question is, who is more patriotic amongst them?
First, is a protest criminal? Is the expression of disliking political decisions of government an act of criminality? Certainly no. On the other hand, is the government stopping a protest that, in its own wisdom, has the tendency to cause destruction to be allowed to happen? Certainly no. This means there’s the need to strike a balance. Any example of countries where protests turned into violence is mere pessimism. People won’t say that police brutality in response to protests were largely 95% reason why peaceful protests often turned violence.
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The government has a responsibility to listen to its citizens. The police and all law enforcement agencies and machineries are owned by citizens and not those controlling government. When it happened in Egypt under Muhammad Morsi, the Armed Forces were drafted against the protesters. They never shoot anyone because they said they exist to protect citizens and not kill them. The end was that the military eased out Morsi and saved Egypt from itself. This is not what we expect in Nigeria, much as the condition of members of the armed forces and their families in the harsh and messy socio-economic guardmire is any better than those of the entire citizens. Yet, they have a responsibility to save the citizens, the country, and the government that will make life bearable.
The government must try hard not to criminalise protests. Protesters must try hard not to engage in violence and criminal destruction of public and private properties to veng their anger. When I heard one Ulama saying obedience to all kinds of leaders in all difficult policies is obedience to Allah and doing otherwise with protests is criminal disobedience to Allah, I quickly reflected to the protestations in 1804 by Usman Danfodiyo, whose protestations brought about the Sokoto Caliphate that brought sanity to the Hausa society of the 19th century. My question to him is was he saying therefore that Danfodio and the successive leaders of that largest political state in pre-colonial Africa were and are products of criminality.? Certainly, Danfodio led a peaceful protest until the King of Gobir, Uunfa responded with high-handedness that the peaceful protesters couldn’t bear. The tide then turned, and the rest is history.
We must certainly always learn from history. Government and protesters must never ground our country. It’s for all of us. We have no other country but Nigeria. We must collectively refuse to be idiots in the way we handle its stability and future.
