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Our Youth and The Crisis of The Nigerian State Revised Abm 4
Our Youth and The Crisis of The Nigerian State Revised Abm 4
We are responsible and patriotic Nigerians who have watched with serious
concern the unfolding crisis threatening to engulf our nation. This has followed the
recent protests by Nigerian youth across the country, against widespread police
brutality, endemic corruption, and bad governance. We are non-partisan actors
who believe in the union of our people through the maintenance of democratic
order founded on the rule of law. We believe in the freedom of all Nigerians to
exercise the rights guaranteed in our constitution, including freedom of speech, the
right to participate in peaceful protest and in processions without harassment or
intimidation from any person or authority.
The response of the Government to these protests has been largely slow,
unconvincing, and half-hearted. By formally accepting the youth’s demand to end
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SARS but immediately announcing it would be replaced with SWAT, that did not
demonstrate good faith. This has happened several times previously when our
youth had protested police brutality and extortion. With no credible response and
with no basis for trust in the willingness of their government to address their real
grievances, they continued their protests.
There are widespread allegations and some available evidence would appear to
support this, that agents of government or other affiliated political actors sought
to break the legitimate protests by the youth through sponsoring or promoting
thugs to attack the protestors and damage properties which were then attributed
to the youth protestors. Some evidence also suggests that there are attempts to
delegitimise the protests by seeking to divide and rule the youth through ethnic
and religious manipulation. This makes the situation very dangerous for the country.
This divisive and cynical approach, if established, portends great danger to the
nation and is unacceptable.
A cynical and brutal response, to the protests by the government or its agencies
will only succeed in taking the agency of these protests from the hands of
concerned, peaceful, orderly protesters for the rule of law and delivering our
streets to the hoodlums and arsonists as is currently unfolding.
With over one hundred million people living in extreme poverty, Nigeria cannot
afford to tread the path of exacerbating ethnic and religious divides which can
only lead to anarchy. Any response from the government agencies or indeed any
group, that suggests this, must be condemned strongly.
On Tuesday 20th October 2020, the nation was rudely shocked by what appears
to be a premeditated violent crackdown on the protestors thereby significantly
escalating the volatile situation. Earlier on that day, the Lagos State Government
had declared a 24-hour curfew which would take effect from 4pm. According to
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reports, as the deadline was not practical, the state government extended the time
for compliance to 9pm. However, before the reviewed curfew time, armed men
in the uniform of the Nigerian military were deployed to the protest site at Lekki
toll gate in Lagos. Available evidence suggests that they did not order the crowd
to disperse and they did not engage in non-lethal crowd dispersal action, but
rather opened live ammunitions on the defenseless assembled youth, some of whom
were reportedly killed or wounded. This attack on unarmed protesters holding
the nation’s flag and singing the national anthem will go down in infamy and will
be engraved in the minds of Nigerians as one of the worst abuses of its own
citizenship.
No Nation can survive a war between its security agencies and its youth, and it is
to avert this prospect that we make this intervention and recommend the following
urgent action.
Having carefully observed and followed these unfolding events, and to halt our
descent into further break down of law and order, we call for urgent steps to be
taken by all concerned.
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b. Institute an urgent independent inquiry on: (i) the events at
Lekki toll gate leading to the use of live ammunitions on the
protestors and (ii) the apparent use of sponsored thugs or
hoodlums by security operatives to infiltrate and break the
peaceful protests. All those identified to be responsible for
this must be held to account and prosecuted.
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Nigeria. We urge that all Nigerians support these demands which
have been without any ethnic or religious coloration.
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9. Prof. Auwalu H. Yadudu 10. Mal. Yusuf Ali SAN
11. Dr. Chris Kwaja 12. Mr. Chino Edmund Obiagwu SAN
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29. Dr. Udo Jude 30. Ms Idayat Hassan