Why government can’t subdue Nigerian protesters

Nigerians protesting fuel subsidy removal

In recent times the world has witnessed several protests and revolutions in countries where people are dissatisfied with their governments. The Arab Spring started with one man in Tunisia, when Mohammed Bouazizi set himself alight and the fallout was the dethronements of the Tunisian President , Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

In Egypt and Libya, President Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi respectively lost out in the power game. While the latter paid with his life and those of some of his children, Mubarak who is bedridden, is currently undergoing trial for mass killings while his Tunisian counterpart is in exile in Saudi Arabia. In all these anti-government protests, despite the killings and maiming, running into thousands, the people usually emerge victorious. For instance in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad has killed over 6,000 people since last March to suppress the protest calling for his ouster. Despite this high death toll the protesters are still unrelenting.
Apart from the fact that aggrieved protesters have decided to take their fate in their own hands, after 'years of oppression', the success drive for these protests is the ability to mobilise huge numbers within the shortest space of time. Relying on internet, social networks, and other communication devices no doubt have limited the effectiveness of these governments in suppressing protests tasks.
Advancement in technology in this computer age has its pros and cons. While hackers and 'yahoo-yahoo' cronies are busy exploiting the negative side of this inevitable modern tool, the internet and social network sites are invaluable tools that have make the Arab Spring and other protests across the world in recent times very successful.
Nigerians indeed are catching fast and are not left behind when it comes to applying this for negative or positive use. Any wise government in this era should endeavour to promptly and adequately exhaust all medium for dialogue before any issue of public concern transmute into mass actions. The Nigeria Labour Congress and civil society organizations organized mass action against the federal government's removal of subsidy on fuel, was indeed a huge success last week. Nigeria was virtually grounded with the protesting people occupying key cities across the country. For the first time Nigerians showed the resolve to take their destinies in their own hands.
The social media and modern communication devices that spread information within seconds were the backbone and facilitator of the protests. Government cannot easily silence an aggrieved crowd who are well informed and have gadgets to mobilise other people for their cause. Nigerian security forces have not lived up to its responsibility of protecting lives in the unfolding episodic remonstration. Police that are meant to protect lives have turned their guns against the people. There is no justification for the lives lost during the general strike.
In civilised nations batons, water cannons, tear gases and shields are used to control protesters. Rubber bullets which are injurious to the human body are rarely. The use of live bullets to kill protesting Nigerians would not only heighten tensions but lead to more aggression that would eventually cause more destruction of lives and properties. The situation last week where death toll of protesters was 12 for the first day alone shows how trigger happy our police officers are and how ill trained they are in crowd control management.
The senseless killings continued the next day where on Tuesday two people were killed in Ibafo, Ogun state. As at Friday, reported figure put the toll at 22. One of the most callous death witnessed last week is the killing of Abiodun Ademola in Ogba, Lagos where the DPO attached to Pen Cinema Police Divisional Headquarters, Tunde Fabunmi was reported to have shot the victim himself. Photographers captured how Ademola where he was been brutalised by a group of police before he was eventually shot death.
The killings of these Nigerians that were hacked down in their primes shouldn't just go in vain. The alleged DPO should be made to face the full wrath of the law if he is found culpable of killing Ademola in cold blood. We should anticipate more deaths if the protest is allowed to continue this week. More Nigerians would be aggrieved and be tempted to join the already teeming crowd as the days of protest elongates.
To prevent the incidence of more destruction to properties and lives an immediate compromise is required from government, where it should revert to status quo and then engage in workable dialogue with Labour and Nigerians. The country's economy is losing billions daily as the strike continues, I don't see government winning this fight, other than for it to go back to the drawing board and prepare more viable policy on the sector for the future.