Sinister and anti-people motives have enveloped Nigeria. This is the submission of Sylvester Odion Akhaine, a Professor of Political Science, Lagos State University. In this piece, Akhaine lends his voice to the unacceptable killing of protesters in Nigeria
I read and watched in agony the callous massacre of peaceful protesters in the streets of Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country.
It is well-known that the Nigerian youth were protesting peacefully, and indeed, it was a festival of protest underlined by dancing and conviviality. The demand was loud and clear: fundamental change of a clearly decadent political structure that serves only the warped political actors while the country sinks deeper into irretrievable decadence and development inertia.
The protest was not localised to the country’s borders. Nigerians in the diaspora massified the protest to let the rest of the world know the Nigerian condition. The ruling clique deployed agents provocateurs, a worn intelligence tactic, to provide a pretext to use of violence against the protesters. This tactic was dramatised in the jail-break in Benin, the deployment of thugs in SUV buses in the Federal Capital Territory, and the visible removal of CCTV camera from their anchors and subsequent opening of fire on innocent flag-carrying Nigerian youths by men of the Nigerian armed forces. At the last count, over a dozen, and still counting were killed. Across the country, an estimated 50 people have been killed while several others have sustained varied injuries.
The killing of Nigerian youth stands condemned. The action is not only outrageous but barbaric and abhorrent to the civilised global community. President Mohammadu Buhari bears responsibility for the killings and the expanding discontent in the country. It is unfortunate that the Nigerian armed forces have turned themselves into an occupation force in a context that they are expected to protect the people who are the boss in a democracy, and the base of sovereignty. It is more offensive to patriotic ethos to open fire on Nigerians waving the Nigerian flag. To paraphrase J. F Kennedy’s phrase, those who make peaceful change in impossible, makes violent change inevitable.
I hereby add my voice to that of well-meaning Nigerians to put the world on notice that something sinister and anti-people is taking place in Nigeria. International organisations such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) to stand by the Nigerian people against a ruling clique that has nothing to offer but looting and sheer destruction of the country. The killers of our youth must not go unpunished.
Long Live Nigerian People!
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