ABUJA: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria's armed forces on Thursday warned against Kenya-style violence during protests planned next week over the soaring cost of living, with the military saying it would prevent “anarchy”.
Kenya has been rocked by deadly protests that have forced the government to cancel new taxes. Economic reforms in Nigeria led to a 40 percent spike in food inflation, but there was no unrest.
Calls for demonstrations began on August 1 in social networks.
It is unclear who is behind the calls and whether people will participate at a time when many Nigerians fear losing their jobs and are wary of past crackdowns.
President Tinubu addressed the concern in a statement on Thursday evening, saying: “We are not afraid of protests. We are concerned about ordinary people and the losses that will be caused.”
In a separate statement, he said “we do not want to turn Nigeria into Sudan,” referring to the northeast African country's 15-month civil war.
“We are talking about hunger, not burials. We have to be careful.”
Prices rose after Tinubu's campaign ended a costly fuel subsidy and liberalized the naira currency as part of reforms needed to revive the economy of Africa's most populous nation.
Officials, security forces and governors urged the youth to stay away from any protests. Some even accused the organizers of high treason and trying to destabilize the situation in the country.
“Although citizens have the right to peaceful protest, they do not have the right to mobilize for anarchy and unleash terror,” defense spokesman Major General Edward Buba told reporters.
“It is easy to see that the current context of the planned protest should overshadow the events in Kenya, which I must say are brutal,” he added.
He said the armed forces had detected some “elements who want to take over” the planned protests.
“The level of violence involved can only be described as a state of anarchy. The armed forces, for their part, will not stand by and allow anarchy in our nation.”
The Department of State Services, or DSS, which deals with insider threats, said “sinister” elements wanted to abuse the protests and were politically motivated.
“The conspirators want to use the supposed violent outcome to smear federal and sub-national governments; make them unpopular and pit them against the masses,” the rare statement said.
Tinubu, who has repeatedly called for patience on his reforms, also suggested that some groups were mobilizing the protests to unleash violence and repeat the Kenyan protests.
On Thursday, he met with traditional rulers to ask for their help in countering any demonstrations.
“We traditional rulers are not in the business of people, especially the youths, coming out to start looting, to break law and order,” Enitan Ogunwusi said after the meeting of the Uni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye.
Last week, the president agreed to more than double the monthly minimum wage for federal workers to 70,000 naira ($43). He also started delivering truckloads of rice to every state in an attempt to ease pressure on the cost of living.
Nigeria's last major protest movement in October 2020 began over abuses by the police's anti-robbery squad, SARS, but escalated into the largest anti-government demonstrations in Nigeria's modern history.
The police force was disbanded, but the protests ended in bloodshed.
Witnesses and human rights organizations have accused security forces of opening fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki Interchange in Lagos on October 20, 2020.
Amnesty International said the army killed at least 10 people at the assembly point, but security forces denied responsibility, saying troops used live ammunition to disperse people breaking the curfew.
