SPOTTED: Protesters wave Russian flags in Kano, call for Putin’s intervention

Some Nigerians were seen in Kano waving Russian flags amid the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest calling for an end to economic hardship.

The protest has largely been marred by violence, looting, and destruction of public and private properties in the northern part of the country.

At least 14 people have been reported dead.

Organisers have labelled the nationwide demonstration as ’10 Days of Rage’.

In Kano, northern Nigeria’s commercial nerve centre, pictures on social media showed protesters waving Russian flags as they marched through the city.

The pictures were taken on Thursday—the first day of the protests.

Also, on Saturday, hundreds of mostly underaged youths took to the streets of Kano, urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene in Nigeria.

The crowd defied the 24-hour curfew imposed by the state government and marched along Bayero University Road, where the Emir’s palace is located.

In Kurna Asabe, Fagge LGA, some of the protesters displayed placards with different inscriptions calling for a Russian military takeover.

The demonstrators expressed a desperate and urgent need for change, saying the current situation is unsustainable, noting that they would rather risk death from violence than continue to suffer from hunger and deprivation.

“We rather die of bullets than to die of hunger; we cannot stay at home and die of hunger,” Auwalu Idi, a protester, told TheCable.

“We cannot stay at home because we don’t have anything to feed our family—no water, no food, this curfew—that’s why we are out to protest again.

“We are raising the Russian flag because we believe Tinubu is playing his imperial masters’ scripts—the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the United States of America.”

Salman Garba, the state police commissioner, told reporters that some of the youths were hiding under a programme organised by an unnamed politician at the Nassarawa palace of Aminu Ado Bayero, the deposed Emir of Kano.

RUSSIA’S GROWING INFLUENCE IN WEST AFRICA

Russia has in recent years expanded its influence in Africa more than any other external actor.

Russian engagements extend from deepening ties in North Africa and spreading its reach in the Central African Republic and the Sahel.

One of the demands on the placards raised by a protester in Kano read “End insecurity”.

Earlier this year, Russian military instructors arrived in the Niger Republic to train the West African nation’s army.

The deal was part of an agreement between both countries to increase cooperation as the West African country, one of the poorest in the world, grapples with jihadist rebellions.

Other French nations in the Sahel battling extreme terrorism have also turned to Russia for military assistance in the face of growing dissent against the West.

Analysts say northern Nigeria’s deep historical ties with neighbouring Sahelian countries worsened by porous borders have paved the way for Russian influence.

For 16 years, Nigeria has battled the Boko Haram insurgency, which has claimed millions of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands in the north-east region.

While the army says it has significantly subdued the terrorists, citizens argue that efforts to eliminate the armed group can be improved.

In June, a report claimed there is evidence that jihadi fighters from the Sahel region crossed into Nigeria through the Benin Republic border.