On the heels of current tumult in Kenya, Senegal, Togo, Comoros and Uganda, Nigeria earlier this month grew to become the most recent African nation to see mass discontent, and occasional violence, over measures prescribed by the Worldwide Financial Fund to reform its debt-strapped and struggling economic system. Hundreds of Nigerians took to the streets to protest a devastating cost-of-living disaster, acute starvation, insecurity, and rampant corruption within the nation’s authorities.
The thought of staging “ten days of rage,” from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10—promoted on social media with the hashtag #EndBadGovernance—first appeared on X, previously Twitter, within the early days of July because the dramatic occasions in Kenya loomed giant throughout the continent. Nonetheless, it was not till the next weeks that the motion started to realize traction on social media. This fervent digital activism, precedent for which had been established in the course of the #EndSARS protest 4 years prior, created panic amongst state authorities, together with Nigeria’s nationwide police, military and intelligence companies, because the protest day drew nearer. An environment of stress prevailed within the first few days of the protest as authorities workplaces, banks, faculties, and personal companies shut down, and the roads, even within the industrial nerve heart, Lagos state, have been freed from visitors.
The youth-driven protests drew tens of hundreds into the streets and led to riots and vandalism in a number of the nation’s northern states, they usually proceed to simmer, leaving the whole nation reeling. Not lower than 22 protesters have been killed in the course of the unrest, in response to Amnesty Worldwide, and greater than 1,000 have been arrested nationwide. As their trials start on fees starting from vandalism to treason, authorities are anxious about snap protests breaking out, significantly outdoors courthouses. The federal government’s response echoed a violent crackdown that unfolded in Uganda in late July as anti-corruption protesters, motivated by Kenya’s instance, tried to rally within the capital, Kampala.
