The Traffic

Hardship Protest: Before We Make Our Own Ukraine and Create a Kenya in Our Land

_Vincent Okafor_

Between January and February 2014 Ukrainians staged prolonged protests that came to be known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution, The protests culminated in the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, whose close ties with Russia were part of what triggered the movement. Yanukovych made some economic concessions to ease the hardship that was also part of the reasons for the protests but those were too little too late. A decade prior, Ukraine was rocked by the Orange Revolution, a series of protests, precipitated by anger at the aftermath of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election run-off which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation and electoral fraud.

Ukrainians might have been proud of the seeming gains they made in asserting themselves as capable of defining the direction of their country, but facts after these protests have shown that they were unaware pawns in a greater geo-strategic chess game. Leaked audio of an alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt in 2014 provided details of how the Maidan protests were teleguided by Nuland, who saw and treated Ukraine as her playground. The Orange Revolution could not have been different.

Those protests shaped Ukraine and were decisive in its current status as a war-torn country that is still being teleguided by external interests, whose only concern is to keep using that country as a proofing ground for emerging weapons and a market for offloading surplus military inventory. In the final analysis, Ukrainians suffer.

Like the Ukrainians when they were staging those protests Nigerians are currently upbeat as they plan protests against the cost of living or economic hardship that is crushing citizens. Things have been rough and citizens are right to draw attention to their plight but it is pertinent not to go the Ukrainian way.

Two protests in our recent past should caution us to the ill of flooding the streets with protests. Beginning January 2 2021, the Occupy Nigeria protest movement took to the streets against fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday, 1 January 2012. Those protests resulted in an estimated 17 deaths and the destruction of property before protest leaders dialogued with the government.

The EndSARS Protests raged from October 8 to 20 2020. The protests first started in response to reported widespread police brutality but later absorbed other grievances. The number of casualties from the protests remains controversial but lives were lost, and property and public infrastructure were destroyed amid widespread looting. Again, the issues behind the protests were subjected to dialogue. 

The recent deadly Kenya Finance Bill protests are an impetus for the Hardship Protests being planned in Nigeria. Those who are given to replicating what transpired in other countries in Nigeria have been using it as a rallying call for people to support a desire to bring violence to our streets. 

The danger of these kinds of protests, which are pure instances of manufacture of dissent, is best appreciated in Kenya, where even after the government has acceded to the demands of the protesters by withdrawing the controversial Finance Bill that triggered them, protesters have refused to quit the streets and protests have rather spread and become decentralised to the point where the prospect of taming them has become remote. Like the Ukrainian protests, Kenyan President William Ruto has alleged that a United States-based organisation is funding the protesters that have destabilised his country.

For us in Nigeria, we must be wary. Those calling for the hardship protests only know the beginning and do not know the potential outcomes or at what point they would lose control of the movement they are attempting to start. Those who are in touch with the external influences and are being teleguided by the same do not even know what the end point of their foreign masters is.

Thus, for those genuinely interested in the wellbeing of Nigerians, the Hardship Protests being planned are best addressed using meaningful engagement with the Federal and State governments even though some would claim that there are no clear protest leaders to open such communications with the authorities. This in itself is a red flag. It implies that no one would tell would-be protesters when to call their actions off once dialogues begin to yield concessions or results.

In addition, it turned out that, like the Ukrainian Maidan Protests, the EndSARS Protests had external influences, which made things get out of hand before Nigeria regained control. Reports have also clearly indicated that these same interests are bent on undermining Nigeria and are in the wings to deploy the hardship protests as a new platform to send Nigeria into a tailspin of destruction.

Should this be allowed to happen, the current cost of living crisis would be a picnic compared to the hardship that would come with the kind of anarchy that would result from protests hijacked by fifth columnists, foreign interests, and their agents. We have had Occupy Nigeria, we had EndSARS and with these planned Hardship Protests we may not be thrice fortunate to escape the machinations of the evil ones.

Consequently, before we create Ukraine out of Nigeria, turning it into a war-torn enclave that is the playground of some sociopathic Western neocon, or create the current condition existing in Kenya here in Nigeria, we must ponder the issues, identify movement leaders and discuss with the government how to address the challenges we face as Nigerians. That would eventually be the end point even if we chose to be willing tools in the hands of anarchists who want to burn this dear nation.