Let there be more protests

It was an anticlimax. Some, with a better understanding of how such things work in our country, had actually predicted such an end. I guess it was only those of us who are not in the loop of political happenings really thought the protest scheduled for today will actually happen as planned.

On Saturday, I was a guest at a radio station to discuss compelling news items of the past week and the planned protest by Innocent Idibia, a musician otherwise known as Tuface, was one of the items we spoke about. It was to the credit of the station, part of the media empire of someone who was instrumental to the emergence of the Buhari government that such matters were freely discussed. Callers and tweeters actually showed their support for the protest that one person who called the musician names were condemned and vilified. One could be pardoned for thinking that the simultaneous protests proposed for Lagos and Abuja will rival the 2012 protests against fuel subsidy removal.

But we were wrong. Probably the police won after all as they still seemed to be in the colonial era whereby agitators for political independence then must obtain approval before marching against the colonial masters. The FCT police commissioner apparently was too eager to do the bidding of the government that he was not satisfied with a mere statement but had to address journalists on the issue. After an initial braggadocio, his Lagos state counterpart changed tack and resorted to persuasion instead. By the way, I thought the gentleman has been asked to go to that crematorium of public officers, the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, so when will he leave Lagos? Both seemed to have forgotten that the court had struck down that colonial vestige and so would-be protesters need no police permit to march against any injustice or oppression.

The colleague whom we were together on the radio programme further offered a historical perspective. The one million march for the late head of state, Sani Abacha in 1998 in Abuja was countered by another against him in Lagos. He spoke of how the radio station he worked for then simultaneously reported both marches. We thereby concluded that those who are against the government and her policies and those supporters who still think that the Buhari government is the best thing since sliced bread should go ahead and march, after all the more merrier. It is however, instructive that despite the fact that the acting president’s spokesperson actually went on air and followed with a press release that the government will not do anything to stop protesters, the police still decided to ignore such a directive and insisted on muzzling dissenting voices.

Then the moment of déjà vu, Tuface withdrew and announced the cancellation of the protest. In the video announcing that, he claimed that some elements have hijacked the protest and this would thereby make it difficult to achieve the targets initially set, so no more protest. What could have happened? Why would he chicken out now when a lot of Nigerians have lent their voices to the protest? It is still possible that some of our compatriots would still march today; as information later emerged that the musician is actually not the organiser of the protest. A group, Enough is enough, is said to be behind the protest and since Tuface is one of the group’s brand ambassadors, that was why he was asked to headline the protest. We need not blame the musician for turning down a historical moment in the annals of our country, but we must also remember that his has not been a music of protest neither has it been one of social conscience galvanizing citizens into taking cogent action against oppressors. It actually says so much about the political level in our country that we could invest him with such expectation to lead us.

Dissent is part of democratic tenets and this point must be made clearly. For those of us who fought military governments as undergraduates, it gives one the shudders that we could be debating the merit of protest in nearly two decades of civil rule. It is the most basic of all rights that we should encourage and embrace. Watching CNN on Saturday afternoon, the mammoth crowd protesting in London against the executive order of the United States president should inspire us all to fight for whatever we believe in and seek to persuade others to join our cause. Processions and vigils should not just be for funerals alone or religious groups but for political causes as well. That’s why we must commend the people of Oyo in Oyo State who protested on Saturday against the menace of armed robbery in their town. Though the police, as usual, tried to stop them and even arrested some of them, they succeeded under the aegis of Oyo Global Forum, to draw attention to their challenge. That’s the spirit and that’s why we should have more protests.