Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on coronavirus Pandemic, Boss Mustapha, has said that workers from below Grade Level 12 have been directed to return to work on October 19 as part of steps to relax imposed restrictions in the third phase of the national response as approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Briefing newsmen today, October 15, Boss Mustapha, who is the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), said that other measures in the new move to relax restrictions include the gradual and safe reopening of schools and the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) camps as well as recommencement of sporting leagues involving outdoor activities.
He said that the Presidential Task Force would advise the various offices to consider alternating office attendance among lower level staff.
This was even as the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu, said that Nigeria is maintaining the phase three of the national response with some modifications.
“It is therefore the informed recommendation of the PTF that Nigeria maintains Phase 3 of the response with further changes to address economic, socio-political and healthcare.
“In this regard, and effective from Monday, October 19, 2020 at a minute past midnight, the following guidelines will come into place.
“The lifting of restriction on outdoor sporting activities including football is in line with earlier consultations with the Federal Ministry of Youth Sport Development and NCDC. However, this is limited to the actual sport itself not with mass gatherings.
“In this regard mass gathering including at sport events is still restricted as this represent an opportunity for the virus to spread with an increased rate of a second wave.
“For gatherings in enclosed places, this will continue to be limited to only 50 persons with physical distancing and compulsory wearing of face masks except for workplaces.
“The PTF also believes that it is now time to allow civil servants of all grades to resume work safely. Additional guidelines will be provided for heads of MDAs.”
The Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) has shared ₦639.901 billion for September 2020 from the Federation Account revenue to the Federal, States and Local Government Councils and agencies.
This was announced after the physical meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for the month of October held at the Federal Ministry of Finance headquarters, Abuja. The meeting was chaired by Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Aliyu Ahmed.
The total distributable revenue of ₦639.901billion comprised statutory revenue of ₦341.501 billion; Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of ₦141.858 billion; ₦39.542 billion from Forex Equalisation; ₦45 billion from Non-oil Excess Revenue and ₦72 billion Federal Government Intervention Revenue.
The gross statutory revenue of ₦341.501 billion available for the month of September 2020 was lower than the ₦531.830 billion received in the previous month by ₦190.329 billion.
The gross revenue of ₦141.858 billion available from the Value Added Tax (VAT) was also lower than the ₦150.230 billion available in the previous month by ₦8.372 billion.
A communiqué issued by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) indicated that from the total distributable revenue of ₦639.901 billion; the Federal Government received ₦255.748 billion, the State Governments received ₦185.645 billion and the Local Government Councils received ₦138.444 billion.
₦36.188 billion was disbursed to oil mineral producing states as 13% mineral revenue, while cost of collection and transfers had an allocation of ₦23.876 billion.
The Federal Government received ₦161.131 billion from the gross statutory revenue of ₦341.501 billion; the State Governments received ₦ 81.728 billion and the Local Government Councils received ₦63.009 billion.
₦21.688 billion was given to the relevant States as 13% mineral revenue and ₦13.964 billion was the total for cost of collection, transfers and refunds.
The Federal Government picketed ₦19.789 billion from the Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue of ₦141.858 billion while State Governments received ₦65.964 billion.
Local Government Councils got ₦46.175 billion, while cost of collection, transfers and refunds were allocated ₦9.930 billion.
From the ₦39.542 billion Forex Equalisation revenue, the Federal Government received ₦18.123 billion, the State Governments ₦9.192 billion, Local Government Councils ₦7.087 billion and the relevant States received ₦5.140 billion as 13% mineral revenue.
The communiqué revealed out of the ₦45 billion Non-oil Excess Revenue, the Federal Government received ₦23.706 billion, the State Governments received ₦12.024 billion and the Local Government Councils got ₦9.270 billion.
From the ₦72 billion Federal Government Intervention Revenue the Federal Government received ₦32.999 billion, the State Governments, ₦16.737 billion, Local Government Councils received ₦12.904 billion and oil mineral producing states got ₦9.360 billion as 13% mineral revenue.
In the month of September 2020, Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Oil and Gas Royalty decreased significantly; Import Duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) decreased marginally, while Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Excise Duty recorded increases.
The balance in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) as at 15th October, 2020 was $72.409 million.
The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed A Adamu, has called on officers ans men of the Force not to disrupt peaceful protests by Nigerians anywhere in the country.
A statement today by the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, quoted the police boss as saying that citizens have fundamental rights of freedom of expression, assembly and movement which must always be upheld and protected by the police.
The IGP however appealed to protesters to continually conduct themselves peacefully and guide their ranks against infiltration by criminal elements.
He stressed that the Force leadership has clearly heard the voice of the people and is irrevocably committed to doing everything within its powers to address the observed ills, punish any offending officers and promote a people-friendly police force.
The Consul-General of Nigeria in New York, Ben Okoyen, has advised journalists, especially online publishers, to direct their loyalty to the people instead of those in power.
The envoy, who delivered a goodwill message to the virtual Annual General Meeting of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), today, October 15, further advised the journalists to continue to be reliable. “Your focus and loyalty must be towards the citizen. Be citizen conscious.” According to him, the people in power also rely on reports by the media, as a result of which he said that journalists must portray the truth always. He urged media practitioners to always verify their reports and avoid one-sided stories. Speaking earlier, Jonathan Rozen of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said that the Nigerian media has been incredibly dynamic and daring, adding that there is vibrant journalism going on in Nigeria. He noted however, that there is ongoing threat to online journalism, which is consistent with the crackdown on the mainstream media, identifying, among others, the Cyber Crime Act being used to target the media. He listed some of the journalists and online publishers who have fallen victim of official harassment over the years in Nigeria, even as he suggested that going forward, there is the need for broad international solidarity to champion the cause of freedom for journalists. Addressing the GOCOP’s virtual AGM, Ramon Nasir, Head of Communications, United Bank for Africa Plc, said that the fact that the Guild has chosen to hold the meeting despite the odds arising from the COVID-19 pandemic was evidence of the seriousness of the group. Ramon commended the professionalism of GOCOP members, saying that they have held on to the ethics of the profession by ensuring balanced reports. In his opening address earlier, GOCOP President, Dotun Oladipo, said that this year’s AGM was unusual because of the times we live in, adding that it is the COVID-19 pandemic that made it impossible for the Guild to hold its usual two-day AGM. The GOPCOP President expressed happiness that none of the Guild’s members was lost to the pandemic. Also present at the pre-AGM session were the Head of the Corporate Communications Department of Zenith Bank Plc, Sunday Enebeli-Uzor and a representative of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited. After the opening session, the AGM proper was held virtually and issues relevant to the association were discussed.
Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalong has said that Borno State and some other states in the North need the services of the disbanded Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) as against the generalisation of EndSARS protesters in parts of the country.
Lalong, who spoke to newsmen today, October 15, at the presidential villa, Abuja said: “Borno Governor said without SARS, he would not have been surviving today. Niger also wants SARS. So, if you are addressing this issue of SARS, you need to know what is wrong in some places.
“Is it the process of recruitment? Is it the character of the people? You can’t say because somebody is wrong, everybody is wrong in the country.”
Plateau state governor said that most of the complaints across the country vary from one state to the other.
“in one aspect, some people said they don’t want SARS, some said they want SARS but a reformed SARS. They want a reformed SARS because as far as they are concerned, some of these SARS operatives help them in addressing insecurity.
“If there are bad ones under, holistically, bring them together and reform them. ” Then, you work for them. So, our opinion and conclusion at that stage was that let us not just say that we are throwing away the baby with bath water.
“If there are good ones, you don’t chase them away. So, as SARS is banned, we are now looking forward to reformed police.
“These are some of the issues we concluded yesterday (at the meeting of the Nigerian Governors Forum). And It’s for the Chairman to go and meet Mr. President to still look at this issue holistically and critically so that we understand where we are going.
“On a whole, we all agreed that there must be general reform within the police. “But you can’t do general reform without proper funding. You must address the issue of proper funding so that they don’t say government is responsible for lack of funding and we attack them for non-performance of their duties.
“I’m sure our Chairman will meet Mr President. We all went back that everybody should go back and address the issue in his State. Because in some of the States, you find that people moving people to do protest are people from other States.
“But in real sense, some of the things are not even happening in our State or they are very minimal. If there are complaints that people are coming outside, let’s not begin to generalize it or we will miss the point.
“Let us address it and find out if in those environment, things are happening like this, we must go back. It’s just like we are addressing Coronavirus. When we say Coronavirus is everywhere.
“At the end of the day, we said no. In some places, Coronavirus is not there. We generalize.”
The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is struggling to contain the protests of the EndSARS movement that has gripped the country like a wildfire, in a similar way that the previous administration of President Goodluck faced the challenge of tackling the Occupy Nigeria campaign in 2012.
Most campaigns through protest movements in Nigeria have been geared towards entrenching the rule of law, good governance, transparency and accountability, equity and justice. They have generally been mobilisations towards a freer and more livable society.
While in the past more than one week, the #EndSARS protests have been calling for an end to police brutality and oppression through the banning of the Federal-Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force, the Occupy Nigeria socio-political protest movement of 2012, was in response to fuel subsidy removal, alongside all the corruption endemic to the country’s petroleum industry, by the Federal Government of the day.
Similarly, in 2014, #BringBackOurGirls movement was launched as a pressure group for the release of the kidnapped Chibok School Girls, which subsequently drew a massive global attention. Some of the recognised and respected faces of those earlier movements, who have remained consistent in their advocacies for social causes are Aisha Yesufu, a human rights activist and Omoyele Sowore, a citizen journalist among others.
In other climes, mass protests are characterised by civil disobedience, social resistance, strike actions, demonstrations, and more recently online activism, especially in this age of the social media. For instance, the Arab Spring movement in 2010 was triggered by a Tunisian street vendor who set himself ablaze in protest against the confiscation of his wares, and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by government officials.
That act of the self-immolation of the street vendor, known as Mohammed Bouazizi, ignited the series of protests that became catalyst for the widespread revolution that swept across the Arab world. Through a succession of anti-government protests, uprisings, and in some extreme cases, armed rebellion, yet driven by different force fields, the Arab Spring movement consumed the regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, while other regimes, such as that in Syria, were shaken to their foundation.
Just lately, the African continent witnessed the removal from office of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali after global outrage prompted by protest movements.
The funding of most protest movements is always shrouded in secrecy, just as the logistics arrangements for coup-de tats were in the past. In any case, intelligence services manage to detect, to some extent, where some of the funding for these movements are coming from, if these are channeled through the financial system.
The widespread use of social media platforms, with their relative anonymity, facilitates the effective coordination of large-scale and well-organised fund-raising schemes from multiple online donors, which are raising huge amounts of cash for logistics.
Crowdfunding is the practice of raising money for a project or venture from a large number of people via the Internet. Online fundraising, which has become part of the digital culture, is a form of alternative financing, driven through crowdsourcing, these days. It could be easier to identify the faces of campaigns, such as lawyers, journalists, social media influencers and human rights activists, however it is extremely difficult to identify the major financiers and donors who want to remain anonymous.
While crowdfunding accounts are legitimate and channelled for good causes, some of these are either created for other less than desirable purposes, which could be hijacked for political interests. Meanwhile, the EndSARS protest movement has raised over N37 million through crowdfunding, according to one of the leading groups in the protest, the Feminist Coalition. The figure shows an addition of N31 million in just four days, indicating a leap of about 487.8 per cent from the previous figure on October 10, which stood at N6,354,561.27.
While Flutterwave is one of the major crowdfunding platforms deployed in mobilising financial resources for the campaign, its Chairman and former Deputy Governor of CBN, Mr. Tunde Lemo is reported to have raised an alarm that “bad guys were moving money through them.” Hence, he said that he had directed the suspension of the fintech firm’s payment platform to prevent the illicit flow of funds through their channel to questionable causes.
So far, the Federal Government, and by implication the Nigeria Police, has given in to the demand of the protesters by disbanding the Federal-SARS or F-SARS and ordered all operatives of the now defunct unit to undergo psychological and medical examinations.
The police spokesperson, DCP Frank Mba, who has consistently engaged social media influencers and critical stakeholders on the development, announced the setting up of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT), which will replace the disbanded F-SARS.
Frank added that former operatives of the defunct F-SARS would not be recruited into SWAT, as the new outfit will strictly be intelligence-driven and not embark on routine patrols.
Even with this development, many protesters have expressed skepticism at what they consider as the duplicity of the government in seeking to quell their campaign, which they have continued in a way now targeted at the newer hashtag, #EndSWAT and #EndInsecurityNow, in replacement of the earlier #EndSARS.
One of the founders of EndSARS agitation, Segun Awosanya, popularly known as Segalink, has distanced himself from any further protest with regard to ending F-SARS, after alleging that politicians and commercial criminals have hijacked the protest for their selfish ends.
In a series of recent tweets, Segalink has warned that the youths of the country would be endangering their lives if they insist on continuing with the protests after the government has agreed to all their demands.
It may therefore not be a coincidence that the strongly-worded but short statement by the Nigerian Military, warning to deal decisively with subversive elements and troublemakers, has also been issued.
The Army spokesperson, Colonel Sagir Musa, who issued the statement, added that the Nigerian Army “remains highly committed to defend(ing) the country and her democracy at all cost.”
Similarly, Major General John Enenche, the Coordinator Defence Media Operations also issued another strong warning on behalf all the security services. He said: “The Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies have observed with dismay some violence-related protests across the country; particularly the increasing number of attacks on peaceful protesters by thugs and miscreants.
This unfolding event against peace-loving Nigerians will not be condoned. Hence, thugs and miscreants are hereby warned to desist from engaging in violent activities against peaceful Nigerians henceforth, or face appropriate measures.”
Whatever may be the case, it is appropriate to reiterate here and now that citizens have the legitimate right to express their political, social and economic concerns in their country through demonstrations or protests. To this extent, the security agencies should know that violent crackdowns against protesters would always lead to untoward consequences, which would not augur well for the image of the federal government.
In crisis management, dialogue, constructive engagements, negotiations, and compromises are acceptable and sustainable approaches to peacebuilding. Let’s stay on this lane, please.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, has said a 60- man team from Russia will soon arrive Nigeria to start Technical Audit of Ajaokuta steel.
Adegbite, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said that Russian government had nominated TYAZHPROMEXPORT (TPE), a Russian company, the original builder of Ajaokuta steel to conduct technical audit of the steel company to ascertain the level of work to be completed.
“The original builder of Ajaokuta steel TPE are coming with the 60-man team to Nigeria to commence audit report of the company.
” I am in contact with them, we are making arrangement for their coming in line with COVID-19 protocol established in Nigeria.
“They will go through Nigerian protocol on COVID-19 when they arrive.”
It will be recalled that the accord to revive Ajaokuta steel company was reached during a meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and President Vladimir Putin in Russia in 2019.
The foundation laying of Ajaokuta steel company was conducted in 1980 by late President Shehu Shagari and within four years, the company recorded 84 per cent completion.
The steel company that is located on 24,000 hectares of sprawling green field landmass is built on 800 hectares of land over three decades ago.
Ajaokuta steel reached 98 per cent completion as far back 1994 and has not produced a single iron till date.
On improving the sector, the minister said that the ministry had commenced the process of reviewing the mining law.
“The law that controls mining is 2007 but we are at the process of reviewing it.”
He said that some physical incentives for attracting miners to invest in Nigeria include import duty waiver for all mining equipment.
Others are tax holiday for foreign miners, three years with a possible extension to five years and low royalty from three to five per cent compare to some countries that charge 20 per cent royalty and among others.
“These are parts of incentive put in place to attract foreign mining investors; these same incentives are also applicable to local miners.”
The Nigerian Army, suspecting danger inherent in the EndSARS protests in some parts of the country, has warned all subversive elements and trouble makers to desist from such acts. The Army reminded such elements that the men and officers remain “highly committed to defend the country and her democracy at all cost.s “The Nigerian Army is ready to fully support the civil authority in whatever capacity to maintain law and order and deal with any situation decisively. “All officers and men are directed never to be distracted by anti democratic forces and agents of disunity.” In a statement today, October 15, the acting Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Sagir Musa, said that the army “reaffirms its unalloyed loyalty and commitment to the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Constitution of the Country.” The statement assured law abiding citizens that the army is highly committed to the sustenance of peace, security and defence of democracy in Nigeria.
The vulture is a mendaciously patient bird. It does not exert itself hunting. It waits to devour the kill of another. It circles the sky while the hunt is on waiting for the opportune time to take advantage and gobble up the carcass. The spirit of 10 Nigerians dispatched to the netherworld since the spasm of #EndSARS protests groans in mortification.
The EndSARS movement began as a righteous agitation against years of police brutality and regime oppression. It was citizens’ convulsive reaction to state terrorism. But it appears the vultures have come to feast on the carnage left in the wake of police clampdown on peaceful protesters.
There will always be people who pursue blinkered agenda secreted in the noble goal of the collective. The EndSARS protests have been miscarried. The movement has been seized by some avaricious interests. The peoples’ fight has been merchandised by those who foxily put themselves up as ‘’stakeholders of #EndSARS movement’’ even while declaring, ‘’there is no leader of the protest’’.
Just like those who sit on high pillaging the country, the youth have among them vultures who feed on the carcass left by the predators of Nigerians. It is like a pyramid of oppressors. The predatory political and business class guts the citizens and leaves the remains from its belch to so-called ‘’youth stakeholders and representatives’’ some of whom have taken up residence on social media.
The #EndSARS movement is now an enterprise.
What started out as organic demonstrations have become contaminated by GMOs – greed, money and offerings. What many protesters on the streets do not know is that while they are giving their sweat and blood for country, some persons are brokering deals for themselves on their behalf. Money and offerings – appearing as benign gifts and support to the cause from those who constitute the bulk of Nigeria’s problems – are exchanging hands.
As a matter of fact, I would like to be educated on this. Why are some ‘’microwave activists’’ parleying with agents of the government and business leaders on #EndSARS protests, but at the same time insist they are not leaders of the cause? So, who and what do they represent at the meetings? Themselves, the movement or their wallets?
Yes, I understand meetings have been held among the same group of people on #EndSARS for at least three times since the protests convulsed. I am also aware that there is a social media dichotomy on this cause. Certain ‘’influencers’’ are enlisted to promote pre-conceived hash-tags to drown out others of kindred purpose. Nothing is without design. The organism of the citizens’ action has been artificiated. There is also an element of opposition sponsorship by politicians who seek to benefit from the crisis.
I must say, there are only two stoic activists whose contribution to the latest struggle is altruistic — Omoyele Sowore and Aisha Yesufu. You can accuse them of anything but not of extracting tolls from their efforts in the cause. And really, you cannot take the mantle of citizen conscientisation from Sowore. Since August 2019, the RevolutionNow convener has been on the beat.
By and large, he is the provenance of the citizen revulsion against police brutality. Yes. He has been on the pedal throttling away and rousing consciences and guts against the inequities of the state.
Also, Segun Awosanya (Segalink) has an undisputed place in the saga of activism against police savagery. His execution by a mob on Twitter on Wednesday for saying the obvious did not come as a surprise to me. Nothing happens on Twitter without a vignette of agenda. You have to look beneath layers and layers of tweets to connect them to the Alpha.
Segun was poignant when he said: “Hustlers being controlled by the lust after money are playing games and throwing narratives around. Your rights to protest must never be commercialised for any agenda. Check the patterns and note the players while keeping your focus. The attempt to hijack the #EndSARS #ReformPoliceNG Movement by known elements that were against it from day one and had to be a part now for fame and earnings is not surprising. They felt they can demonise me and take ownership by force. But they’ll fail again as always.’’
Really, the hustlers have taken over. This is not an attempt to submerge the #EndSARS cause in controversy. But we must get off the emotional high and face up to the fact.
EndSARS has been appropriated. The mission is compromised! I repeat, the mission is compromised!
A group, the Buhari Media Organization (BMO) has asked those who are still protesting against the Special Armed Robbery Squad (SARS) in some parts of the country, what else do they want after it had been disbanded.
In a statement by its Chairman, Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary, Cassidy Madueke, the group said that the Police Force had followed up the disbandment by ordering all SARS operatives to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for medical and psychological evaluation. “President Buhari has shown again that he leads an administration that listens, with the dissolution of SARS in line with the original demand of the EndSARS protesters. “We also acknowledge that when the protest movement came up with additional demands, including the investigation of human rights violation by SARS operatives, the Presidential Panel on Police reforms granted their request and gave the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) one week to set up an independent panel to call for memoranda from members of the public whose rights may have been violated by the defunct SARS and other segments of the Police. “It is necessary to add that the Police have also been holding stakeholders meetings with civil society groups as part of a confidence-building measure to show their seriousness on disbanding the unit, this time after previous efforts failed.” The BMO said that it was after these meetings that a decision was taken to establish the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to replace SARS “It is a fact that the dissolution of the unit was bound to create a gap in the Police operational plans against armed robbery and violent crime, especially as there have been reported incidents in various states in the last few days. “But we are surprised to see protesters kicking against the introduction of a new police unit to replace the defunct squad, immediately after the announcement by Inspector General Mohammed Adamu. “We consider it worrisome that many of them chose to ignore the part of the announcement on prospective members of the new team undergoing psychological and medical examination to ascertain their fitness and eligibility for the new assignment. This is aside from training at the different Police tactical training institutions nationwide. “It is against this background that we see the continuation of the protests as a call to anarchy which no country will tolerate, especially because there is no basis to demand an end to a plan that is meant to establish a modern, tactical police team that is in line with global best practices. “The protests have outlived their usefulness and we urge young people on the streets to sit back and see how their cries for reform would be implemented”. The group insisted that President Buhari is serious about his plans to put in place a Police Force that all Nigerians would be proud of.
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EndSARS: Protesters, Crowdfunding And National Security, By Yushau A. Shuaib
Most campaigns through protest movements in Nigeria have been geared towards entrenching the rule of law, good governance, transparency and accountability, equity and justice. They have generally been mobilisations towards a freer and more livable society.
While in the past more than one week, the #EndSARS protests have been calling for an end to police brutality and oppression through the banning of the Federal-Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force, the Occupy Nigeria socio-political protest movement of 2012, was in response to fuel subsidy removal, alongside all the corruption endemic to the country’s petroleum industry, by the Federal Government of the day.
Similarly, in 2014, #BringBackOurGirls movement was launched as a pressure group for the release of the kidnapped Chibok School Girls, which subsequently drew a massive global attention. Some of the recognised and respected faces of those earlier movements, who have remained consistent in their advocacies for social causes are Aisha Yesufu, a human rights activist and Omoyele Sowore, a citizen journalist among others.
In other climes, mass protests are characterised by civil disobedience, social resistance, strike actions, demonstrations, and more recently online activism, especially in this age of the social media. For instance, the Arab Spring movement in 2010 was triggered by a Tunisian street vendor who set himself ablaze in protest against the confiscation of his wares, and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by government officials.
That act of the self-immolation of the street vendor, known as Mohammed Bouazizi, ignited the series of protests that became catalyst for the widespread revolution that swept across the Arab world. Through a succession of anti-government protests, uprisings, and in some extreme cases, armed rebellion, yet driven by different force fields, the Arab Spring movement consumed the regimes of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, while other regimes, such as that in Syria, were shaken to their foundation.
Just lately, the African continent witnessed the removal from office of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali after global outrage prompted by protest movements.
The funding of most protest movements is always shrouded in secrecy, just as the logistics arrangements for coup-de tats were in the past. In any case, intelligence services manage to detect, to some extent, where some of the funding for these movements are coming from, if these are channeled through the financial system.
The widespread use of social media platforms, with their relative anonymity, facilitates the effective coordination of large-scale and well-organised fund-raising schemes from multiple online donors, which are raising huge amounts of cash for logistics.
Crowdfunding is the practice of raising money for a project or venture from a large number of people via the Internet. Online fundraising, which has become part of the digital culture, is a form of alternative financing, driven through crowdsourcing, these days. It could be easier to identify the faces of campaigns, such as lawyers, journalists, social media influencers and human rights activists, however it is extremely difficult to identify the major financiers and donors who want to remain anonymous.
While crowdfunding accounts are legitimate and channelled for good causes, some of these are either created for other less than desirable purposes, which could be hijacked for political interests. Meanwhile, the EndSARS protest movement has raised over N37 million through crowdfunding, according to one of the leading groups in the protest, the Feminist Coalition. The figure shows an addition of N31 million in just four days, indicating a leap of about 487.8 per cent from the previous figure on October 10, which stood at N6,354,561.27.
While Flutterwave is one of the major crowdfunding platforms deployed in mobilising financial resources for the campaign, its Chairman and former Deputy Governor of CBN, Mr. Tunde Lemo is reported to have raised an alarm that “bad guys were moving money through them.” Hence, he said that he had directed the suspension of the fintech firm’s payment platform to prevent the illicit flow of funds through their channel to questionable causes.
So far, the Federal Government, and by implication the Nigeria Police, has given in to the demand of the protesters by disbanding the Federal-SARS or F-SARS and ordered all operatives of the now defunct unit to undergo psychological and medical examinations.
The police spokesperson, DCP Frank Mba, who has consistently engaged social media influencers and critical stakeholders on the development, announced the setting up of the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT), which will replace the disbanded F-SARS.
Frank added that former operatives of the defunct F-SARS would not be recruited into SWAT, as the new outfit will strictly be intelligence-driven and not embark on routine patrols.
Even with this development, many protesters have expressed skepticism at what they consider as the duplicity of the government in seeking to quell their campaign, which they have continued in a way now targeted at the newer hashtag, #EndSWAT and #EndInsecurityNow, in replacement of the earlier #EndSARS.
One of the founders of EndSARS agitation, Segun Awosanya, popularly known as Segalink, has distanced himself from any further protest with regard to ending F-SARS, after alleging that politicians and commercial criminals have hijacked the protest for their selfish ends.
In a series of recent tweets, Segalink has warned that the youths of the country would be endangering their lives if they insist on continuing with the protests after the government has agreed to all their demands.
It may therefore not be a coincidence that the strongly-worded but short statement by the Nigerian Military, warning to deal decisively with subversive elements and troublemakers, has also been issued.
The Army spokesperson, Colonel Sagir Musa, who issued the statement, added that the Nigerian Army “remains highly committed to defend(ing) the country and her democracy at all cost.”
Similarly, Major General John Enenche, the Coordinator Defence Media Operations also issued another strong warning on behalf all the security services. He said: “The Armed Forces of Nigeria and other security agencies have observed with dismay some violence-related protests across the country; particularly the increasing number of attacks on peaceful protesters by thugs and miscreants.
This unfolding event against peace-loving Nigerians will not be condoned. Hence, thugs and miscreants are hereby warned to desist from engaging in violent activities against peaceful Nigerians henceforth, or face appropriate measures.”
Whatever may be the case, it is appropriate to reiterate here and now that citizens have the legitimate right to express their political, social and economic concerns in their country through demonstrations or protests. To this extent, the security agencies should know that violent crackdowns against protesters would always lead to untoward consequences, which would not augur well for the image of the federal government.
In crisis management, dialogue, constructive engagements, negotiations, and compromises are acceptable and sustainable approaches to peacebuilding. Let’s stay on this lane, please.
Yushau wrote in from
www.YAShuaib.com