Protesters take to the streets in Nigerian cities over cost-of-living crisis
Protests against a cost-of-living crisis are under way in several Nigerian cities including the capital Abuja, despite weeks of government efforts to stifle them.
Across Minna and Katsina in the north and Lagos in the south, hundreds of people took to the streets on Thursday for the first day of the weeklong “End bad governance” protests. Security personnel and armoured trucks were deployed to the streets.
Gunshots were reportedly fired into the air by the police to disperse converging protesters in Minna, capital of Niger state, a three-hour drive from Abuja. In the capital, police fired teargas at demonstrators.
In Lagos, where many businesses were closed for the day, one middle-aged woman carried an empty pot, drumming and chanting as she followed other younger marchers.
The catalyst for mass action nationwide was the hike in everyday commodities due to multiple reforms, particularly the removal of a popular but controversial fuel subsidy. That has driven millions to hunger and squeezed more people out of Nigeria’s thinning middle class, forcing youth groups to mobilise accordingly for mass action.
The protests began a few days ahead of schedule in Niger state despite being slated for Thursday. Analysts say the change in timing and commencement in the north where protests against socioeconomic conditions have been slow to catch up for decades, indicates the depth of abiding frustration in the country.
Ikemesit Effiong, head of research at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, said this was because the “much poorer” region, which is experiencing an acute malnutrition crisis, is “disproportionately impacted by a triple whammy of high insecurity particularly from jihadists and kidnap rings, elevated levels of political instability and a food growing crisis which has left many families hungry, frustrated and seething”.
The government has been scrambling several weeks in the buildup to the protests, fearing a Kenya-type mass action. On Thursday, there were more security personnel than protesters in some cities. Scores of pro-government protesters were also out to counter demonstrations in part of Lagos, but moving unencumbered.
On the eve of the protests, religious figures continued to plead with youths to stay indoors and choose dialogue instead, while government officials scurried to secure multiple court orders restricting protesters to certain areas. One such injunction was defied in Abuja on Thursday.
“Today is the hunger day, we all promise you that we are going to be on the streets of Abuja,” one protester told local TV, Channels, in the capital. “Hunger has brought me out.”