Bloody Tuesday October 20, 2020 in Nigeria
The Nigerian Government cannot claim to be a democratic government. Today October 20, 2020 in Lagos State Nigeria and in several other cities around the country, it unleashed the brutal force of its military against unarmed youth protesting for a long overdue change in the country that is plagued by
poor governance, poor infrastructure, very high level of unemployment for youth, excessive corruption at high levels of government, impunity of politically elected officials etc.
For about two plus weeks, the Nigerian public both inside the country and in the diaspora has been fascinated and exited over the sudden awakening of Nigerian youth take to the streets all over the country to demand change in the current system of things in the country. Nigerian youths who have
been used by numerous previous political parties and governments with promises of jobs, opportunities and a better life to achieve their political aims. Once in power, the youth are forgotten until the next round of political campaigning.
This
particular protest unlike any previous youth agitation appears to be different
and took the government by surprise. A very well organized and community
supported and funded youth protest has emerged demanding real change in Nigeria
and is ongoing and generating momentum daily. The government thought initially
that it would go away after a couple of days, but the demonstrations and street
protests have persisted. There are some
reasons why the protests may not be going away any time soon! Evidence from the
protest reveals widespread community and even diaspora support for the youths.
Support for the protesters include free food from the community, free medical
treatment from volunteer doctors and nurses, free supplies of needed materials
including raincoats and umbrellas etc. to ward off the rains, free radio and
television coverage of the protesters and their demands, monetary donations from
well-wishers to designated banks from within and outside Nigeria etc.
The large protests has been persistent and becoming
disruptive to normal economic and day to day activities in many parts of the
country. However, instead of the Federal government to negotiate with the
protesters and find a way to understand their “seven points demands” etc. for change
from decades of neglect and dissatisfactions over the decay and corruption of
the country, the government decided to snuff off or silent the protest by the
use of brute military force against the unarmed group of youth demanding change. Imagine the use of machine gun fire directed at a crowed of unarmed youth.
Observers
of the Nigerian scene like this writer, expected some level of the use of government
coercion to subdue the relentless protests, but our hope was that in the
democratic dispensations that Nigeria has adopted to follow since the return to
civilian rule, nothing of the sort like we have witnessed in the Lekki toll gate incident would occur.
The tactics adopted by those behind the killings shows and
reveals their premeditated intention to kill as many youths as possible, and the succeeded. For
example, prior to executing their killing mission, the Lagos state government declared
a curfew and used it as the pretext to intervene. One may suppose that the government
policy makers expected the youth to disobey the curfew order, and they did. This provided the needed justification to intervene.
The disobedience to government curfew
directives was followed by sending in the military. We now understand that the particular
set of military boys that opened live fire directly on the crowd of protesters
were soldiers from the 65 Battalion Bonny camp led by their commanding officer
by the name of one Lt Col S.O. Bello. Who directed Lt Col S.O. Bello and his team
of murderous soldiers to open fire on unarmed Nigerian youth is still not clear at this point in time. We understand they are writing their reports to the
authorities that demand to know who directed the military to the Lekki toll
gate scene.
The premeditated actions of the policy directives of those
behind this gruesome event is obvious. First they removed the monitoring circuit
cameras around the Lekki tool gate so the evidence of their killing actions would not
be recorded. This was followed by shutting off the lights around and at the toll
gate where the youth were gathered singing the Nigerian National anthem etc. In
the darkened atmosphere of the scene and without any announcement or warning to
the protesters they opened gun fire directly on the crowd of youths. Several incidences of point blank shooting and killing of
innocent demonstrators occurred today not only in Lekki Lagos State but in many other Nigerian major cities in the guise of enforcing a declared government curfew.
What a brutal and unnecessary action from the Nigerian government and its soldiers supposed to
protect the Nigerian people. This particular action and the many murderous actions
of the government police over the last two weeks only amplifies the widespread
stereo type of western governments criticisms that African governments do not care about the
lives of its people.
Similar events as we witnessed in Lekki toll gate take place
regularly in other African countries daily. Uganda for example has been plagued
with officially sanctioned extrajudicial killings for several years. The government
of president Museveni recruits desperate people from Burundi Rwanda, Congo etc.
into his armed forces. They kill and treat people like trash. Zimbabwe is another
case in point. Under these circumstances
that we have witnessed taking place in Nigeria and other African countries, how
does one justifiably argue against such western governments stereotyping of
African rulers.
Nigeria is the largest economy in African and is supposed to be the pace setter in governance and human rights for other Afrcan nations. The international community must denounce the barbaric actions
of the Nigerian army and government and come to the defense of the rights of the
Nigerian people to protest against poor governance and excessive brutality of
corrupt and ineffective government against its own people.
