The protests have been largely peaceful unlike in the past, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, among others until the police ?intervention? which led to the killing of about 10 people so far as the protests entered its fourth day.� Apart from yesterday?s riots in Minna, Niger State, and some pockets of disturbances in Kano, observers believe that the protests have so far been unprecedentedly peaceful compared to other strikes embarked upon in the past.
In Kano for instance, where past protests were characterized by looting of shops and attacks of non-indigenes by miscreants, the ongoing protests have been without any incidents of looting and burgling of shops.
Instead, the protesters in states of Kaduna, Kano, Abuja, Lagos, and other hot spots for sectarian violence, have adopted the Egyptian?s Tahrir Square system, where Christians provided human shield to their Muslim brothers to observe their daily prayers and vice versa.
The government, according to the civil society activists, is not happy with the new trend and therefore is bent on causing confusion by, ?importation and infiltration of anarchists into legitimate labour/civil society protests by the Federal Government and their State Government collaborators.?
In a statement yesterday, the activists said that ?it is also the Federal Government that has been recruiting agent provocateurs to distort the content and context of the struggle and to achieve its pre-determined outcome to enable it impose a state of emergency and present the Nigerian people with a fait accompli.?
They accused the Federal Government for setting the stage for the imposition of a state of emergency in the country to ?enable them ram through their fuel subsidy removal decision on the Nigerian people.?
The statement was jointly signed by Barrister Festus Okoye of the Human Rights Monitor, Y. Z. Yau of CITAD, Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Innocent Chukwuma of CLEEN Foundation, Funke Aluko of Centre for Genders Rights Protection, Emma Ezeazu of Alliance for Credible Elections, Saviour Akpan of Community Policing Partners and Faruk Umar of Transparency in Nigeria.
Some of the organizers of the protests in Kano explained to Daily Trust correspondents the strategies they employed in achieving peaceful protests.� Comrade Isa Tijjani, President of the Northern Youths Forum, said even before the protest was staged, they were able to mobilize people and ensured that they were coordinated by assigned group leaders.
?We ensured a peaceable protest by not just allowing people to take part on their own; we made sure protesters participated in groups and all the groups were put under some leaders responsible for coordinating its members and responsible for any action by its group members. We also used the public address system to make announcements at intervals of 10 minutes on the need for people to remain calm while the protest goes on,? he said.
?We were also able to control the crowd by threatening that any one found with any type of weapon or engages in violence will be disowned,? he said.
The National President and Kano State Chairman of the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), Comrade Mohammed Sani Hassan also spoke on their strategy for the peaceful rally.
?Since we heard of the Federal Government?s announcement of removal of fuel subsidy, we saw the need for a protest but even then we convinced ourselves that it must not be brutal and therefore started strategizing on best ways to mobilize our members for a peaceful demonstration. We started mobilizing our members by summoning all our LGs and unit leaders for a meeting.
?We also used the media, radio especially, to caution them on the need for peace and through that, we were able to mobilize about 1.5 million of our members to the protest and we have not witnessed any form of violence by any of our members,? he said.
Leader of Northern Youths Assembly, Comrade Ibrahim Mu?awiya also said that the peace experienced was not unconnected to the fact that things this time around took a new dimension where they realized how leaders used religious and ethnic differences in the past to trivialize national issues.
?The secret behind the peace we are experiencing during this very important protest is for the simple fact that Nigerian youths have this time around refused to be divided on the bases of religious, ethnic or political divide which our so-called leaders use to mislead us on important national issues.
?Before we embarked upon the protest, members of various groups met to plan how to mobilize their members for peaceful rallies and we are succeeding. We decided we must all be law abiding and patriotic while we staged our position on the fuel subsidy removal.
Kano secretary of the Nigeria Bar Association, Barrister M. A. Lawal attributed the nonviolent nature of the protest to people who cooperated with the organizers by adhering to all rules guiding the protest march.
According to Lawal, the NBA which staged its protest march yesterday, made it mandatory that the vigilante group should be withdrawn from streets, and that there was a lot of awareness to make the protest non-violent.
The state Chairman of NLC, Comrade Isa Yunusa Danguguwa said three committees were put in place to prevent all unforeseen circumstances that may change the protest to violent. He said there was crowd control committee, monitoring committee, awareness committee and tactical committee.
He said awareness committee handled public address system which announces the� do?s and don?t?s of the protest; crowd control committee controlled the movement of the crowd during the protest, tactical committee controlled and directed routes to be followed; while monitoring committee ensures that no protester carries any weapon or makes any attempt to loot or intimidate people.
Despite these successes, the activists said that, ?it is clear that the Federal Government and some of their collaborating state governments are resolved to impose curfew in different parts of the country and ultimately impose a state of emergency throughout the federation.?
The groups said other signs indicating government?s resolve to achieve its aim include, ?the threats being issued by the Attorney General of the Federation asking workers to resume work or their salaries will be stopped and the promise by the Attorney General of the Federation to provide protection for workers that will defy labour directives thereby setting the stage for a vicious confrontation between and among workers.?
They accused government of ?abusing the machinery of the National Industrial Court and obtaining a back door injunction knowing full well that the said court is not sized with the jurisdiction to make the orders it made.? They described this as a ?deliberate contravention of an existing direction from the Supreme Court and the National Judicial Council warning judges against the grant of ex parte orders by judges of various courts.?
The activists said one other avenue employed by the authorities is ?the warning by the Attorney General of the Federation that refusal to obey the black market injunction he obtained from the National Industrial Court will lead to a state of anarchy when he knew that such an order will be unenforceable and useless.
Other strategies adopted by the government, according to the group, include ?the imposition of curfew in Zamfara, Kaduna and Oyo states to prevent Nigerians from exercising their legitimate right to protest against wicked governmental policies, ?the use of live bullets against unarmed civilians and the indiscriminate use of teargas and horse whip against the protesters and the deployment of obscene resources to hire pro-subsidy mobs and fake public affairs commentators to drum support for its anti-people position.
?The contemptuous manner with which the Federal Government dismissed the resolution of the House of Representatives by describing a resolution passed by representatives of the Nigerian people as ?mere opinion.?
?The insistence by the government that dialogue can only mean and be hinged on acceptance of its fuel prize increase.?
Despite these, the civil societies vowed that they ?will not sit back and allow groups and individuals who are comfortable with dictatorship, military rule and any government in power to abort the democracy they enthroned with their blood.?
They added that, ?civil society groups and its allies will not succumb to the unpopular policy of the government. The government is not ready to fight corruption. It is not ready to fight incompetence and inefficiency in government. It is not ready to fight poverty and the cabals holding the country down.
?We advise the Federal Government that rather than deploy resources in hiring town criers and agent provocateurs to infiltrate and distort the struggle of the Nigerian people, the government should revert back to the status quo and address the enormous security challenges in the country,? the groups said.
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