The nationwide protests spearheaded by former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Mr. Omoyele Sowore through his Take It Back movement has come to an anti-climax end yesterday being the 10th day of protests.
The protests, christened 10 Days of Rage, were billed to hold from 1st August to 10th August, 2024 across the country. Part of the aims of the various organisers was to protest against hunger and bad governance in Nigeria.
The protests recorded eventful starts on Day 1 in some parts of the country especially Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Bauchi, Damaturu, Maiduguri, Katsina, Sokoto, Yola, and few other cities.
It however turned violent in many northern states such as Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi etc with destruction of properties and looting of businesses and homes rampant. Some of these states immediately imposed curfews to restore normalcy. The FCT also witnessed some confrontation between violent protesters and security agencies. Some casualties were recorded as a result of these.
President Bola Tinubu last Sunday addressed the nation in a national broadcast where he appealed to the protesters to call off the protests and open channels of dialogue. He noted that he has heard the voice of the protesters loud and clear and went further to real out measures his administration is putting in place to tackle the difficult economic situation facing the country.
After the President’s broadcast, some Nigerians decided to heed to the President’s call for an end to the protests while many of the organisers insisted that the protests must continue. This is despite obvious signs that some hidden forces with regime change as their major agenda had infiltrated the protests.
Many protesters were seen calling for a military take over in Nigeria while some protesters were boldly waving Russian flags especially in some northern cities. This led the security agencies including the DSS to make some arrests on the ground of treason.
The five states of the South East notably had little or no protest activities going on. Many states in the South South geopolitical zone also went about their normal businesses. Apart from Lagos in the South West, the protest did not gather any momentum in most other states in the region.
As the protest lost steam and legitimacy, the momentum kept dwindling as the days progressed. In a last ditch attempt to salvage the protests and end it on a high, the most notable face organising the protests, Mr. Omoyele Sowore announced from his US base that a one million-man march would take place across the country on the last day of the 10 Days of Rage.
However, on Saturday, the one million-man march planned by Sowore and other organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protest flopped spectacularly across the country due to very low turnout. By the 10th day of the protests, many cities that initially witnessed protests had returned back to normalcy with Nigerians going about their normal businesses amidst heavy security presence.
In Abuja and other parts of the FCT, the march witnessed a very low turnout with the police mobilising its men to strategic locations across the federal capital territory. Most protesters that initially came out 10 days earlier stayed away following the violence that greeted the protests in some parts of the FCT.
In Port Harcourt, the one million-man march did not even take place as protesters were absent on the streets of Port Harcourt. The Rivers State Police command however deployed its personnel and patrol vehicles to government buildings/offices across the city.
In the northern states that had to deal with looting and violence in the first few days of the protests such as Kaduna, Kano and Katsina, people generally boycotted the one-million-man nationwide protest. Instead, the residents were peacefully going about their business activities. The events of the previous few days seemed like a distant memory. Police and military personnel were however deployed in strategic locations in these states.
In Benin, Edo State residents went about their normal businesses unhindered. Markets were opened with people freely conducting their businesses. Commercial transporters were also freely conveying people across the entire city.
In Lagos, which was hoped to be the epicentre of the entire protests judging by the build up rhetoric of the organisers, the tempo of the protest never quite went high. There was also no violence recorded in any part of the State. The usual Lekki tollgate, which is favourite congregation point for protest organisers in Lagos did not witness much activity all through the 10 Days of Rage.
The one million-man march also flopped in Lagos as people’s appetite for the protests waned considerably as the days went by. The Lagos State government on its part was extremely hands-on in monitoring the protests and ensuring that there was no repeat of the violence and destruction that characterised the #Endsars protests four years ago.
With the anti-climax end to the #EndBackGovernanceProtest and apparent failure of the #TinubuMustGo agenda by some of the organisers such as the Sowore-led Take It Back movement, it is difficult to outline what the 10 Days of Rage eventually achieved.
The various protest organisers reeled out largely impractical and conflicting demands with no united channel of communication with the government at different levels to open any negotiation if need be.
The protests were also tainted by fraudulent activities of some of the organisers. Podium Reporters earlier reported how one of the protest organisers was accused of absconding with donations made by Nigerians to help provide sachet water, food and transportation to protesters.