Abuja: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian military warned on Thursday against Kenya-style violence in protests over rising living costs next week, with the military saying it would prevent “anarchy”.
Kenya was rocked by deadly protests that forced the government to scrap a new tax. Nigeria's economic reforms sent food inflation soaring by 40 percent, but there was no unrest.
There has been a social media appeal for protests since August 1st.
It is unclear who is making these demands, and it is also uncertain whether people will take part in them at a time when many Nigerians fear losing their jobs and are cautious due to past crackdowns.
“We are not afraid of protests. Our concern is for the ordinary people and the harm they will cause,” President Tinubu said in a statement late on Thursday, citing his concerns.
“We do not want to turn Nigeria into Sudan,” he said in a separate statement, referring to the 15-month civil war in the northeast African nation.
“We're talking about hunger, not burial. We have to be careful.”
Prices rose after Tinubu ended costly fuel subsidies and liberalized the naira currency as part of reforms needed to revive the economy of Africa's most populous country.
Officials, security forces and governors have urged youths not to take part in any protests, some of which have accused organizers of treason and of trying to destabilize the country.
“Citizens have the right to peacefully protest, but they do not have the right to mobilize for anarchy and terrorism,” Defense Department spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Bubba told reporters.
He added: “It is easy to see that the contemporary context of the planned protests is a depiction of what is happening in Kenya. I must say, they are violent.”
He said the military had detected “forces attempting to hijack” the planned protest.
“The level of violence expected can only be described as anarchy. The military will not stand by and let anarchy descend upon our country.”
The Department of State's Defense Security Service (DSS), which deals with domestic threats, said “nefarious” elements were exploiting the protests and had political motives.
“The conspirators intend to use the intended violent outcome to vilify the federal and state governments, make them unpopular and turn them against the public,” the rare statement said.
Tinubu, who has repeatedly urged patience with reforms, also said some groups were inciting violence and staging demonstrations to emulate the protests in Kenya.
He met traditional rulers on Thursday to ask for their help in responding to the protests.
“Our traditional rulers do not allow people, especially the youths, to come out and start looting and disrupting law and order,” the Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi said after the meeting.
The president agreed last week to more than double the minimum monthly wage for federal employees to 70,000 naira ($43). He also began trucking rice to states to ease cost-of-living pressures.
The most recent major protest movement in Nigeria took place in October 2020, which began as a response to alleged abuses by the SARS anti-government unit but has since 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 groups have accused security forces of opening fire on peaceful protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos on October 20, 2020.
Amnesty International reported that the military killed at least 10 people at a toll gate, but security forces denied responsibility, saying they used tear gas to disperse people violating the curfew.
