By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa

Some weeks ago, news broke out that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was in talks with the government of Zamfara State to buy five billion naira worth of gold.

Many were shell-shocked at such strange development, given the position of the federal government on issues of mines and minerals as part of the items listed in the Exclusive Legislative List of the Constitution, which has hitherto been held as being the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government. Though the CBN and Zamfara state have offered some feeble defences on this transaction, it has raised fresh agitations within the Niger-Delta region, which has been denied control and use of minerals within their territory.

The Zamfara gold has only thrown open the absurdity of the present unitary government of Nigeria stylishly termed federal. The new slogan in the Niger-Delta that has trended online is: ‘if Zamfara can sell gold, Niger-Delta can retain and sell its oil’.

Whether this is right or wrong is not the issue presently but rather that these fundamental contradictions have only highlighted the need for restructuring of the federation to achieve an equal sense of belonging by all the federating units.

The regions should be allowed to develop their resources according to their capacities and through mutual agreements, they can engage in bilateral commercial arrangements that will allow exchange of goods and services between themselves. What this translates to is that the federal government has to shed weight, very urgently.

Though it is not expressly stated in the demands of the organisers of the EndSARS protest, the entirety of their agitation speaks of a genuine desire for change, contrary to the slogans of the All Progressive Congress, (APC) and the deceptions of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), these many years.

What the protesters are yearning for is nothing but a call for restructuring. The youth are tired of the status quo and ‘audio promises’, as they have now labelled the empty statements of the politicians. To imagine that we have had to remind APC of its own promise voluntarily made to restructure Nigeria, by amending the Constitution to achieve devolution of power is nothing but betrayal.

The EndSARS protest is thus a loud testimony of the demand for restructuring. Never in our history have we seen it like this, with people from all sectors of our national life uniting for a cause. Now, everything that should define our nationhood is in shambles; from insecurity to a dwindling economy, decayed infrastructure, corrupt leadership and over-bloated bureaucracy, there is cause for us all to worry about Nigeria.

What has made the situation worse now is that the President seems to be living in denial of the true facts of the imminent disintegration of the foundation of the nation, given the utterances of his spokespersons, to the protests.

The mood of the nation since the Edo State governorship election should have given enough warning signals to the powers that be as to the angst of Nigerians over certain unpalatable policies of the government.

How do we cope with rising inflation, increase in electricity tariff and insecurity across the land?

Everybody has now voted for restructuring, from South-South leaders in PANDEF, to Northern leaders in NCF, South-West leaders in Afenifere, South-East leaders in Ohaneze Ndigbo and indeed Middle-Belt leaders. The question then is this: who is opposed to restructuring or frustrating its manifestation?

Some people ask for the meaning and nature of restructuring. It is very simple. Restructuring means fiscal federalism or resource control, state police and devolution of powers to the States and Local Governments, which will empower every part of the union for greater productivity.

Before the 1966 military incursion, Nigeria was practising true federalism, whereby the regions controlled their resources as autonomous political territories. With over 250 ethnic nationalities, diverse cultures, multiple faiths and irreconcilable historical experiences, federalism is the only suitable form of government for Nigeria.

To insist on anything contrary to federalism for this nation is to ask for its eventual balkanization. Today, of the 37 units making up Nigeria, only one of them is viable, being the Federal Government.

The 774 local governments areas merely exist in name, almost choked out of any meaningful impact, by the states. The states and Local Governments cannot functionally respond to critical issues in their locations without the intervention of the Federal Government. That is unacceptable.

Why should Lagos and Kano states not be allowed to grow their separate economies in accordance with their growth, capacities and resources?

Sao Paulo is the second richest city in Brazil with a GDP that exceeds those of countries like Argentina and Paraguay. In Australia, there is healthy competition between the regions in mining, agriculture and industries. The monthly IGR of Lagos State is now in excess of N300 billion, which exceeds those of five countries in Africa. How do we hold down the development of such a state in the name of unitary federalism?

I got this post through one of my WhatsApp groups and it speaks to the current state of affairs of Nigeria. Please read along with me.

“It’s difficult to comment on this EndSARs protest. The reasons are not far-fetched. The Govt has responded reasonably well to almost all demands and in record time too. One wonders why the youths are still protesting. If it’s based on the reasons stated by the time the protesters started the Govt has done well. But, truth be said, in my own opinion, the protest has continued because people are just angry with the way the country is. They are disillusioned with the governance of the country. They have been patient and hoped for change, the Govt keeps claiming Nigeria is getting better but to the common man he knows his life is not particularly better now than the way it was in 2015. It is even open to discussion if it has not gotten worse! Based on facts, these protesters can’t logically argue why they are still on the street, but deep down he/she knows it’s difficult to palpate the change that has been so much anticipated from this Govt.

I know this because I saw how people prepared for the botched Labour strike. People hitherto supporters of the Govt were ready to hit the streets to tell PMB in particular that they are disappointed in him. The consensus and support amongst different stakeholders in the country for that strike has been unprecedented for this administration. I knew it then that the Govt was lucky to make Labour back down. But alas! People were just waiting for the opportunity.

Why are they angry? The petrol and electricity hike, I guess was what tipped people over. Let us not forget that this administration has increased PMS price before but the streets were silent. The reason in my opinion was simple. Majority still had some confidence in PMB. That is no longer the case. That support base has waned seriously. Those who tell the President otherwise are deceiving him. While the Govt may still have some justification for the PMS hike, the people cannot fathom the basis to keep paying crazily more for the electricity that is just not there. And to add salt to injury, you can be in the same street and you have different rates for electricity under the guise of cost reflective tariff!

And what do we say about the cost of food in the land? Well the ever increasing inflation rate should answer that. A bag of rice now is more than the minimum wage! Yeah, the people were patient to see the results of the rice revolution. They anticipated. They waited. Now, Nigeria is said to be the highest producer of rice in Africa. Bravo! But what is the explanation for this killing increase in price. Before the revolution, rice was between 5k and 8k. Now, so-called local rice is hovering around 25k, foreign above 30k. Even if we are expected to jettison the foreign, why is the local this expensive? Why? We can continue to give excuses for the Govt, but what the common man wants is just to eat. If they can’t afford chicken peri-peri at least they should be able to eat pocket-friendly local rice. I don’t think that is too much to ask for. Check other food stuffs, Garri, bread etc, just getting totally out of hand.

At a point, the only argument left for the administration was that at least security is getting better. But can we still say that in all confidence? BH is increasingly getting bold all over again. But even if we say the capacity of BH is not like 2015 and preceding years, what do we say about the spreading menace of bandits? Kidnapping is now a national emergency even if the Govt hasn’t declared it so. Yet call to rejig the security apparatus has met deaf ears. People have even questioned if the President is aware in time, place and person!

So in my opinion it’s disillusion in the governance of the country that is behind this agitation. EndSARs just provided the opportunity. They want to tell the President in clear terms – You are not doing well!! Perhaps some of us feel its political jobbers that are behind this. I don’t think so. Obviously they want to take advantage of it and they will do it. If we notice some of the protesters have tried in their own little way to ward off political opportunists but surely this kind of protest won’t last without some funding. Those who wish to create anarchy in the land will surely seize the opportunity. They had wanted to bring the President /administration down from day 1. They threw several things to make the people rise against it but consistently the masses had looked away. They actually had trust in the Man at the centre until now. It is not strange that opportunists cash in on things like this. Lest we forget, a similar thing happened during the protest against the last administration. Tables have turned now, nobody should cry foul.

I hope the President is reading this whole scenario well. I hope he gets the right message from it. His legacy is obviously being questioned. He should be mindful of what he will be remembered for. He can’t blame anybody, he asked for this position three times before he was given on the fourth time asking. He also has the luxury of a renewed mandate. History will not accept any excuse from him.”

I have nothing more to add, save to call upon the President to do the needful, NOW!

By Reuben Abati

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The Falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity
Surely some revelation is at hand…
– W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming (1919)

The poem quoted above: “The Second Coming” by Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1919) is probably one of the most adapted and quoted poems in world literature, and in politics and culture, to describe moments of anxiety, uncertainty and a seeming “slouching towards” chaos and anarchy in any community. Written in 1919, in the context of the Spanish flu, after the First World War which ended in November 1918, and at the beginning of the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1921), W.B. Yeats’s poem helps to encapsulate the horror, confusion, the disarray, the despair that has overtaken Nigeria in the last two weeks, in the wake of a revolt by Nigeria’s Generation Z, a generation that insists that they can no longer tolerate the failure of the Nigerian state and leadership. They are saying “Enough is Enough”, and they would not be deterred until they see concrete assurance that the change that they demand is in the horizon. The “slouching beast” of their protest is a notorious unit of the Nigeria Police: the much dreaded, now defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). SARS was known for its brutality, its indulgence in extra-judicial killing and the lives of many innocent Nigerians which its members deleted with impunity. Police brutality is not the only beast: the youths of Nigeria have since identified more beasts: a problematic foreign exchange rate, cybercrime and fraud, fuel price hike, legislators who are underworked and overpaid, terrorist herdsmen, unemployment, bad roads, a failed leadership elite – all of which combined threaten the future of the average Nigerian youth. They want to take charge of their own future. They want to take their country back as they now say – “#one-step-at-a-time”.

For the past two weeks however, the street protests that have been staged by the youths have assumed a new life, resulting in a great disruption. The protests have spread like wild fire, fuelled by innovation, creativity and “passionate intensity”. One striking feature of it is how it has taken the shape and form of community transmission, especially in Lagos where every neighborhood feels obliged to organize its own version of the protest. On Monday, October 19, the state of Lagos was practically on lockdown. Every major street junction was blocked by angry youths playing music, wielding placards of protest, and asking motorists to either join the protest or return home. At the Lekki end of the city, the Lekki toll gate has been shut down since the beginning of the protests. That particular spot has emerged as the nerve-centre of youth revolt, and a cultural melting pot where solidarity is the normative code, and rebellion is the spirit of the congregation.

In Abuja, critical road arteries were also blocked, effectively shutting down the entire Federal Capital Territory. The road to the International Airport was occupied. Northern Youths under the aegis of the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) are also protesting across the 19 states of the North. The difference between the protests in the North and the protests from the Middle Belt to the South lies in the emphasis by the Northern groups on the need to end insecurity in the North. Essentially, there is a meeting of minds among Nigerian youths, North or South, that something terrible has gone wrong with our country that needs to be fixed. The other exception that we have seen are those “rented” youths whose sponsors are yet unknown who attack the protesters in Abuja and Lagos, those who steal from youths who are fighting to save Nigeria, and those youths who are giving the emerging revolution a bad name by engaging in acts of violence.

The sad part of the protests so far is the degeneration into violence. What was conceived as and which began as a peaceful protest has now turned bloody. It has now been overtaken by the Nigerian factor. It would be most unfortunate if the protesters lose focus or they are pushed to do so. Amnesty International reported last week that about 10 persons had died in the course of the protests. The number has increased since hoodlums infiltrated the protests and policemen who had been warned by the Inspector General of Police began to shoot at protesters. The emerging picture is frightening. In Osogbo, Osun State on Saturday, the convoy of the State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola was attacked. The Governor insists that it was an attempt to assassinate him. In Abuja, more than four deaths have been reported within a week. Yesterday, Benin City went up in flames. Police stations and vehicles were set ablaze. Prisoners jumped the fence at the Benin prison and escaped. Just as we defend the right to protest, any act of violence is also condemnable. It is in order to prevent this that the Nigerian Civil Society has been very vocal in insisting that the police, the military and other security agencies must not turn their guns on protesters, or arrest or detain or harass them. It is also in part why the decision of the Nigerian Army to launch Operation Crocodile Smile VI in the middle of a nationwide protest has been criticized for its bad timing. The explanation that the Operation has nothing to do with the #EndSARS protest has been dismissed as insincere. Soldiers have now been seen on the streets of Abuja, confronting #EndSARS protesters. Things are clearly falling apart…

The protesters claim that they are being provoked, or blackmailed, but as the days go by, it is difficult to identify a coherent strategy despite the gains that have been recorded. In the absence of an identified and structured leadership, the protest is at best amorphous. The Northern anti-insecurity protesters appear to be better organized. Every zone has a leader with published details. In the South, every man or woman who goes out to protest is a leader in his or her own right. This has resulted in internal bickering, and much in-fighting. Each member of the protest would seem to have an agenda of their own: from the adoption of protest as a new found vocation, or the enjoyment of the carnival-esque ambience of the protests. What needs to be watched also is the manner in which the protest in full flight is beginning to alienate those who should naturally be part of it. The organizers should also watch out against inflicting emotional pain and psychological violence on the same persons whose interests they are fighting for. We are all involved in the struggle to save Nigeria. There is no Nigerian who has not suffered a form of police brutality or the other or the impunity of uniformed state officials. The various stories that have been told convey our collective pain and the depth of our anguish, and the drowning of our innocence. But when protesters block a major highway, and all arterial roads from dawn to dusk, they inflict pain on innocent persons.

For days, people living in the Lekki part of Lagos have not been able to go to work or go about their daily business. When people go to work on the Island from the Mainland, they are not sure of what awaits them on the road. Protesters take over the roads and harass motorists. The Lagos Ibadan Expressway has been shut down repeatedly in the last two weeks. Transporters are put through enormous stress. The supply chain between Lagos and other parts of the country is disrupted. The economic impact of the on-going protest is huge. A newspaper investigation reveals that since the protests started in Lagos, the closure of the Lekki toll gate alone has resulted in a loss of about N234 million. When all this is over, is there any guarantee that the managers of that toll gate will not take it out on the young people who work daily at that toll gate. And there have been reports as well of persons who died in the last two weeks because they could not be rushed to the hospital because the roads have been blocked. All schools in Lagos have been shut down over #EndSARS protests. My point is this: while the right to protest is sacrosanct, it needs not extend to a violation of other people’s rights.

Nigeria faces a dilemma. How would the present crisis be resolved? The Federal Government has accepted all the five demands placed before it by Nigerian youths, North and South. It has dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. It has announced the establishment of a Special Weapons and Tactical Unit (SWAT), which has been roundly laughed off because of its peremptoriness and lack of originality. A total of 37 officers have either been reprimanded, demoted or dismissed from the Police for having been involved one or the other in the abuse of office and privilege. In Lagos, four officers have been named and are likely to face prosecution. At the last National Economic Council meeting chaired by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, it was agreed that every state government and the Federal Capital Territory should set up a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate all cases of police brutality and extra-judicial killing and ensure that justice is done. By yesterday, six states have set up the panels as agreed, and two – Lagos and Kaduna states- have inaugurated them. In addition, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has personally offered Nigerian youths an apology. The First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari has also called on the Nigerian government to “rescue the people.” Yesterday, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare after a meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa reported that the President has appealed to #EndSARS protesters to give government time to address their demands; they have spoken and he has heard and that the reforms they are asking for will happen.

Indeed, the protesters have achieved a lot in two weeks. They have demonstrated the power of solidarity and the importance of their voice. This generation of protesters is not ready to “off the mic”. They insist on being heard. Their voice is so clear, it has been amplified across the world by celebrities, governments and Nigerians in Diaspora who have taken to the streets in about 10 countries of the world to draw attention to the Nigerian crisis. We have seen impressive displays of character and humanism as the story of the revolution continues to unfold, the physically challenged like Jane Obiene and Charles Nnama – victims of police brutality – who joined the protest and got the support and adulation of others. The nursing mothers who took their children to join the protest. The elderly mothers who protested on behalf of all mothers who lost a son, a daughter, a husband or a relative to police brutality. An 89-year old citizen, Professor JTK Duncan showed up at the barricades, waving the Nigerian flag. Aisha Yesufu remains irrepressible. The Feminist Coalition, which has coordinated donations to the cause and the setting up of helplines is the very definition of responsible citizenship. We have also witnessed a harvest of creativity: new songs by Davido, Asa, Fikky, Kabex, Ripple Effect, Falz and M.I. Abaga which define the protest; many more are emerging: short skits, paintings, memes, ingenuous tweets…an online SORO SOKE radio platform, Nollywood movies in the making…The protest has been teleological, technological, poetic and physical.

But when and how will these protests end? The real protest is in the mind of every young Nigerian who has been disappointed by the Nigerian state and who prays for a better country. No one can put a final date to that. The youth of Nigeria will not begin to trust their governments because of a few concessions and fine rhetoric. When their country changes for the better, they will be the first to know. But protest as an event cannot be an end in itself. I believe that with the present outing, the time has come for an audit and a review of strategy after two weeks. The protesters must resist the temptation to be turned into shooting targets by a state that is becoming overwhelmed: in Lagos protesters reportedly took over the international airport; in Benin, prisoners escaped, and in the face of all that, some government officials are beginning to tell us that the government of Nigeria will not stand by and allow anarchy to reign. To whom it may concern: The time has come for a review of strategy and tactics.

As for the Federal Government of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari should step forward and address the angry youths of Nigeria at home and in diaspora. He can no longer afford to speak through proxies and third parties. The protesters won’t listen to such persons. They don’t trust anyone at all at this moment. The Falcon can no longer pretend not to hear the Falconer. This is the time to change the narrative of the on-going protest, and only you, Mr. President can do it. Talk directly to the youths of Nigeria. Then sack one or two guilty persons to show that you truly believe in the principle of fairness. Seize the moment. Now.