The Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) is worried by 16 clear areas regarding the August mass protests and is putting 19 recommendations on how these worries might be best dealt with. In a statement by its president, Prof Hassan Saliu, the NPSA situated the protests which lasted for the first ten days in August 2024 as highlighting the challenges of democratic governance.
“While democracy allows for unconventional expressions of dissent, the government’s response to the protests revealed its discomfort with citizens taking to the streets. Despite prior notice, the government was caught off guard, and its subsequent actions, including warnings, scapegoating, and harassment of suspected leaders, only strengthened the protesters’ resolve”, NPSA said.
In apparent response to one-sided insurrectionary framing of the protest, the NPSA says that the protests which were peaceful in some states assumed violent character in others, attributing it to issues like hunger and other demands later. It points out how the government’s response, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s address to the nation, was deemed insufficient by the protesters.
Coming to the crux of its statement, the body maintains that the aftermath of the protests has raised concerns about national cohesion, the tendency to view citizens as enemies, and the breakdown of law and order in some states. It lists its worries about the policy implications as follows:
- Further erosion of national cohesion
- Elastic definition of enemy by government and citizens
- Security agencies’ conflict resolution role
- Invitation to military takeover
- Infiltration by criminal elements
- Spiral of looting and stealing
- Worsening economic situation
- Too many demands placed before government
- Little coordination of the protests
- Government at all levels not align with citizens
- Unfavourable environment for policy delivery
- Potential for another protest
- Foundation for a more acrimonious 2027 electoral process
- Promotion of Russia’s interests in some parts of the nation.
- Role of western interests in Nigeria
- Instability image transported to the global community
Based on these concerns, the NPSA is putting the following recommendations on the national conversation table:
1.Improved conflict resolution by security agencies
2. More coordination of protests to avoid criminality
3. Avoiding extreme interpretations of the protest
4. Addressing the “rebellion from the belly” that led to the protest
5. Coordinated communication strategies
6. Efforts to reign in on the governors to be more citizen-centred
7. A more robust citizen-government relation
8. Gestures like slashing public officials’ take-home pay
9. Stop elephant projects in these hard times
10. A reconsideration of the subsidy regime
11. Placing embargo on foreign trips
12. Moderating ostentatious living by public officials
13. Timeline for refineries to start working again
14. Stop making inflammatory statements
15. Assertiveness by the president in redirecting the country’s affairs
16. Democracy allows for dissent, not criminality
17.Release of protesters who were not involved in criminality
18. Always consider the interest of the nation
19. Not everything from external sources is good for the nation.
For the NPSA, this is an opportune time for the government to address the trust deficit and redirect the country’s affairs, the statement concludes.
