October 21, 2020: (Accra, Ghana)
The Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG) has noted with concern the unfolding political confrontation in Nigeria. Across the length and breadth of Nigeria and in at least 30 states, millions of youths have taken a brave, peaceful, and articulate stand against the repression and violence that has been a part of Nigeria’s political culture for decades. Nigerian youth have demanded substantive (not superficial) disestablishment of the murderous Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit, fundamental police governance reforms, the release of detainees, and reparations for thousands of victims of state repression.
Worryingly, but unsurprisingly the Establishment response has been authoritarian. Political, military, and police officials have denounced protestors as rioters and enemies of progress. They are believed to have mobilised vandals and staged prison-breaks to support this narrative. They have imposed curfews across the country to disperse protesters. And they have threatened and deployed escalating violence against citizens wrapped in Nigeria’s national flag.
As there is no question that Nigerian citizens are aware of what is happening we must assume that much of this is targeted at external observers – to create the semblance of consensus and tranquility that would prevent international isolation and even sanctions. Far from standing down, the youth have stood firm in their resistance. Their movement is gathering momentum. Youth are showing great courage, discipline, openness, resilience, and ingenuity in responding to establishment threats and actual attacks. The number of protestors is growing.
The political constituency for protest is broadening out. Protesters’ demands are moving beyond an end to political repression to a radical rejection of the disunity, incoherence, crushing poverty, inequality, official corruption, gender discrimination, and the apparent paralysis of the security services in the face of real insurgents that blight Nigerian society. And most encouragingly there is evidence from social media that in some cases, at least, the young officers and soldiers deployed to smash protests are beginning to identify with their age mates and implicitly their agenda.
The Nigerian situation has profound implications for the entire West African region – not least the strong example that Nigerian youth have set for youth across the sub-Region. Nigerians are at least 60% of the Region’s population and even more of its economy. ECOWAS is headquartered in the Nigerian capital. There are intense economic, social, and cultural ties at elite and popular levels across the Region. The Region is currently facing major security and disintegrative challenges and simply cannot afford a social explosion in Nigeria.
Despite its deep crisis, SFG does not believe this is an inherently revolutionary moment in Nigeria. It could only become so if the State continues to respond to citizens’ demands with bullets and blood. We demand that the Nigerian authorities stand their troops down and respect the human and constitutional rights of citizens. They must halt the intimidation and gunfire and open a dialogue with the citizens they are meant to serve. They can build confidence by meeting the core demands of the protesters.
We call on organised labour, religious bodies, Civil Society, professional associations, and other representative bodies in Nigeria to speak out for civil rights of all Nigerians and an end to the violence. Continued violence will only play into the hands of the forces that want to see Nigeria decay and disintegrate.
We call on the Government of Ghana, ECOWAS, and the African Union to speak up publicly and condemn Nigerian state violence against citizens. We demand a response to the Nigerian crisis that is at least as vigorous as the effort that they put into their failed attempt to protect the unconstitutional government in Mali. They must use all available diplomatic channels to pressure for restraint and dialogue in Nigeria. They must do so in the interest of the Nigeria masses. But they must do it also out of self-interest – a destabilised Nigeria is a deeply destabilised Ghana and West Africa.
We call on Ghanaian masses and especially our youth to put pressure on the Nigerian High Commission and on our leaders to act proactively and responsibly. Long Term SFG stands firmly with Nigeria’s youth and working people. We are encouraged that they are transcending the ethnic, religious, and identity differences that have kept older generations of Nigerians from acting together to change their circumstances and that they have refused to become pawns in sectarian agenda.
However, Nigeria’s youth must reflect on the national situation and the increasing list of demands their activism is putting forward. We call on them to analyse what connects and underpins all their discontent. The challenge is Imperialism – the systematic plundering of Nigeria’s economy and society by global capitalism. The injustices they are challenging are just the outer defences of a more fundamental problem – arrangements developed by imperialism to maintain its stranglehold on Nigeria’s resources.
British colonialism-controlled Nigeria through ethnic and religious divide-and-rule tactics and ruthless force. It entrenched deep suspicion and hatred amongst the peoples of the North, Southwest, and Southeast of Nigeria. It empowered backwards ethnic and religious institutions to structurally undermine national solidarity that would challenge colonial exploitation. It also built a formidable military (often described as the only truly “national” institution in Nigeria) indoctrinated in British values and the colonial agenda and willing the drop of a hat to suppress dissent in any form.
Post-independence, and despite a calamitous civil war, Nigeria’s elite has maintained this divide-and-rule strategy – elaborating federal arrangements that deepen ethnic division and thinly veiled military rule. On the one hand, ethnic and religious big men continue to position themselves as protectors of local sectarian interests against rival ethnic and religious groups. On the other hand, these warlords parade as the “statesmen” guaranteeing national stability by keeping these disruptive ethnic and religious forces in check.
This permanent conflict allows big men access to a massive federal “oil” barrel. The huge and growing national security complex too continues to cite the same fear of State disintegration to justify their relentless attacks on critics of the neo-colonial system – though they appear wholly incapable of managing genuine threats – while they swim in the same “oil” barrel. And disgusting as the backwardness, corruption, and profligacy of the neo-colonial elites in all our countries, the resources that they steal are insignificant when compared with the resources siphoned out of the country’s oil industry by transnational corporations acting “lawfully” and backed by our “development partners” who lament so loudly about Nigerian governance but continue to arm the Nigerian state to the teeth to protect the status quo.
Nigeria’s youth must develop a correct analysis of this dynamic and develop the organisation, strategy, and tactics to address fundamental problems. Nigerian (and Ghanaian and all other West African) youth must learn from the mistakes of the Arab spring where similar spontaneous movements attacking the symptoms of imperialism across the Maghreb were co-opted by Imperialism to bring even more dangerous forces to political power. SFG will continue to monitor, study, and speak to developments in Nigeria and to promote solidarity with its activists and their organisations.
Long Live Nigeria! Long live Africa!
Justice Akuffo-Henaku, Head of International Relations
Get more stuff like this
Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.