Abuja: Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the military warned on Thursday against Kenya-style violence in protests planned next week over soaring living costs, with the military saying the protests would help prevent “anarchy”.
Kenya has been hit by protests that have forced the government to scrap new taxes. Nigeria's economic reforms have led to a 40 percent spike in food inflation, but there has been no turmoil.
Calls for a rally have been circulating on social media since August 1.
It is not yet clear who is behind these calls, or whether people will join them at a time when many Nigerians are wary of job losses and wary of past crackdowns.
President Tinubu addressed the concerns in a statement late Thursday, saying: “We are not afraid of protests. We are concerned about the general public and the damage that will be done.”
In a separate statement, he said: “We do not want to turn Nigeria into Sudan,” referring to the 15-month civil war in the northeastern African country.
“We are talking about hunger, not burials. We have to be careful,”
Prices have been rising since Tinubu ended subsidies on expensive fuel and made the naira more liberal in reforms needed to revive the economy of Africa's most populous country.
Officials, security forces and state governors have urged young people to stay away from the protests, with some even accusing organizers of treason and attempting to destabilise the country.
“While citizens have the right to protest peacefully, they do not have the right to mobilize to riot and unleash terrorism,” Defense Department spokesman Gen. Edward Booba told reporters.
“It is easy to see how the contemporary context of the planned protests is overshadowing the events in Kenya, which are, to be sure, violent,” he added.
The army detected “some groups of people who were intent on attacking” the planned protest, he said.
“The expected level of violence can only be described as disorder. The armed forces of the army will not allow disorder to occur in our country,”
The Department of State Services (DSS), the agency responsible for domestic threats, said the “evil” group wanted to exploit the protests and had political motivations.
“The plotters intend to use the intended violent outcome to slander the central and subordinate governments, make them unpopular and turn them into enemies of the people,” the statement said in a rare statement.
Tinubu, who has repeatedly called for patience with his reforms, has also suggested that some groups are mobilizing to unleash violence and emulate protests in Kenya.
On Thursday, he met with traditional rulers to seek their help in resisting any protests.
“We traditional rulers do not interfere with the people, especially the youths, who are looting and destroying law and order,” the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, said after the meeting.
Last week, the president agreed to double the monthly minimum wage for government workers to 70,000 naira ($43). He also began sending truckloads of rice to states to ease cost of living pressures.
The last major protest movement in Nigeria in October 2020 began with a violation by the SARS anti-looting unit of the police, but evolved into the largest anti-government rally in Nigeria’s modern history.
The police unit was disbanded, but the protests ended in bloodshed.
Witnesses and human rights groups have accused security forces of opening fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki toll plaza in Lagos on October 20, 2020.
Amnesty International reported that the army killed at least 10 people at a toll gate, but security forces denied responsibility, saying the soldiers used blank bullets to disperse curfew violators.
