Social And Political Rebellion: Comparing Nigeria And The UK

Social And Political Rebellion: Comparing Nigeria And The UK

Almost around the same time at the end of July till August 10, there were demonstrations going on contemporaneously in Nigeria and the UK particularly in England and Northern Ireland but not in Wales and Scotland. The demonstrations against tough economic situations in Nigeria were concentrated in the northern parts of Nigeria while there were scattered eruptions in the south. This is because the poverty in Northern Nigeria is more severe than in the south not because the present government wanted or caused it but because of historic reasons of aversion to western education and resultant opportunities and consequent greater impact of unemployment and poverty.

In the UK, the protests were concentrated in more economically deprived and depressed areas like Liverpool and the Midlands while the urban areas like Manchester, Birmingham and London were spared. The protests in England began after the killing of three young white children in a school by a deranged 17-year old boy whose parents came from Rwanda. News went round that he was a Muslim boy presumably from Pakistan or an Islamic country. This was the signal for general uprising in several pockets of land in England and Northern Ireland with the rising war cry of “Pakistan go home” directed at the large Asian communities in the Midland and South East England. Happily the urban centres were spared. The people doing this were mostly the small shop keepers, rural poor and the unemployed who have been left behind by the fiscal measures of 15 years of conservative governments. They found the immigrants as scapegoats because they are visible minorities and as targets, they were easily identifiable and were physically attacked.

Hotels harbouring asylum seekers were targeted and some were burnt. Their places of worship like mosques were torched. Once mobs became mobilized against foreigners, everyone was vulnerable including students from foreign countries. The new prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer who had had prosecutorial background took on those after the immigrants. He empowered the police and the courts to do their jobs and put rioters and vandals behind bars. The rioting went much longer than anybody would have expected but gradually the work of the police and the courts worked and the attacks on the immigrants began to simmer down.

The reason for this social and political revolt was due mostly to misinformation spread by people using the internet to peddle rumours about the coming of Islam to their homesteads. This led the prime minister to say that proper legislations will come before parliament on how to control incendiary propaganda using the internet. Secondly the new Labour government has promised to put measures in place that would take care of social and economic deprivation that had festered during the years of Tory rule. Finally, the new government is ready to tighten the screw on the loophole on immigration to ensure that immigrants do not constitute a nuisance to society.

To rub it in, Senator JD Vance, the vice presidential running mate to Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate recently on a visit to England disparaged the government’s efforts on immigration by saying Britain is going to be the “first  Islamic  country with nuclear bombs”, forgetting that Pakistan already has the bomb. His comments were not helpful because it casts Britain as a helpless country overrun by Muslim fanatics. This is of course far from the truth but this is the kind of statement that people like Nigel Farage and his UK Reform Party would twist and run with, thus firing up anti-immigrant hatred. This has had direct impact on immigrants coming to the UK particularly students in large numbers from India and China and some from the Middle East and Africa with consequent reduction in resources available to British universities which benefit from international fees paid by foreign students.

Many doctors, nurses and other workers in the care sector of the National Health Service are staying away from the UK which people see as an unfriendly place prone to violence. The riots have therefore damaged British reputation at home and abroad and destroyed Anglophile sentiments among students who are future leaders of countries which found British education useful.

The demonstration in Nigeria was against grinding poverty, insensitivity of the politicians who, while calling on the people to tighten their belts because of the serious economic problems facing the country, are not ready to make any financial sacrifices. They give themselves humongous salaries and allowances and financial perks that make them look as if they were in a different country. Many of them have conditions of appointment that make the mouth water.

Knowledgeable people of course know the country is almost bankrupt but the lavish consumption by the political elite make them bitter opponents of government policies to the extent of wanting to want to bring the edifice down on their heads. Unfortunately, many of the demonstrators have been edged on by failed politicians who might have been cheated and manipulated out of the greasy financial benefits of political and public appointments. The rest of the crowd of protesters were disillusioned patriots, regional and religious bigots who seemed to feel they and nobody else must be at the helm of government. These people were those who were shouting in Sokoto at the palace of the Sultan calling on the military to seize power as if the military has a magic wand to solve the serious economic problems facing and destroying Nigeria.

One of the things I do not understand was the fact that even before the commencement of the protests, the government showed defeatist and helpless posture which was unlike what happened in England. It is after the whole thing died down that we are beginning to hear in muffled voices about investigation of the rioting that accompanied what was said to be a peaceful protest.  The waving of Russian flags calling on Russia to take over their country was most concerning. It is however remarkable that throughout the protest, the army was not deployed in large numbers on the streets except as means of deterrence in one or two places. Casualties were also kept low and it seems food prices are beginning to come down not necessarily because of government measures but because harvests are gradually coming to the markets to drive down the cost of food. Throughout the period of demonstrations, very little was said about the role of subnational governments of the state in tackling some of the problems facing the ordinary Nigerian. What we kept hearing is what the president has done or not done as if there are not 36 state governors in the country.

As far as I know, Nigeria remains a federation of coequal governments each with its own area of jurisdiction and economic status and responsibility. This has led to the subnational governments having a free for all kind of corruption and squandermania with little or no control or oversight by the puny state legislatures that are mere structures rather than serious organs of government.

The emphasis this government is placing on local government administration (LGAs) will even compound the problem with replication of what is going on at state levels at the local government level. If this happens, perhaps the next protest will not be national but state and local in concentration.

I have heard all kinds of panaceas being suggested by armchair economists who say instead of grandiose capital projects like Lagos-Calabar express road and Badagry-Sokoto express road, government should concentrate on feeding the people. The question one would ask is after eating what next? Has it occurred to people saying this that the projects would employ hundreds of thousands of people and would open up the country for development and production thus leading to an increase in national wealth? It is not the duty of government to feed the citizens; rather what government should do is to provide security and inputs for agricultural production and transportation facilities to move goods around. Our governments in the last decade have not been able to do this and the government can be charged with dereliction of its duties and responsibility. This is a legitimate charge and government should work hard to fulfil its duty to the people. It is very unpopular to say that we need to be patient and allow government policies to work towards their end goals. Of course, government must not expect the people to wait for ever.

The demonstrations in England and Nigeria at the same time have clearly shown how interconnected the global economy is. The people in England are protesting against higher costs of food and accommodation and are pointing wrongly to immigrants as the people causing the problem. Generally in Nigeria, the people are pointing accusing fingers to the government and people in power while forgetting their roles in bringing their country down. We are all guilty in differentiated degrees whether in England or Nigeria. The solutions to our problems must be well thought out and application of the preferred solution must be gradual and not abrupt. Calling for revolution is cheap and unintelligent and some lawyers and members of the intelligentsia playing revolutionaries may find out that revolutions tend to consume their own children.