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Protesters took to the streets of Nigeria’s major cities for a second day on Friday, as citizens of Africa’s most populous country took to the streets to denounce a dire cost-of-living crisis and poor governance.
More than a dozen people were killed on Thursday when security forces opened fire on protesters in several northern states, including Borno, according to human rights groups, which was also among those to introduce a day-long curfew as part of efforts to quell the unrest.
Organizers of the protests, which also took place in the commercial hub of Lagos and the capital Abuja, had called on Nigerians to demonstrate their displeasure over soaring food prices and three-decade-long high inflation during 10 days of demonstrations.
They were partly inspired by demonstrations in Kenya, where a youth-led movement rebelled against the government’s proposed tax hike to plug the fiscal deficit.
Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, with annual inflation above 34% and food prices rising further.
The deep malaise, which President Bola Tinubu’s government pledged to address when it took office last year, has pushed millions into poverty in a country with one of the highest poverty rates in the world.
Tinubu has implemented a series of economic reforms to revive Nigeria’s ailing economy. But his solutions have created their own problems, with a move to partially remove popular but expensive fuel subsidies leading to a tripling of fuel prices and triggering a jump in the cost of consumer goods and transportation. The local naira currency has also lost about 70 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar aVsceker two devaluations in the past year.
Heavily armed police and soldiers were deployed across the country, and police fired tear gas at protesters on the first day of demonstrations. Nigerian National Police Chief Kayode Egbetokun said all units were placed on “red alert” and could seek increased military intervention.
The government had spent days trying to prevent the protests from going ahead with a mix of veiled threats and cajoling. It had obtained court orders banning protesters from public parks, with security forces suggesting they had uncovered a plot to use the protests as a Trojan horse to oust the government. Traditional rulers and religious leaders, including powerful imams, had also been enlisted to appeal to their followers to avoid dissent.
In the days leading up to the first day of demonstrations, Tinubu’s administration announced vacancies at the state oil company and doubled the national minimum wage to N70,000 ($43).
Human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement Friday that authorities should investigate Thursday’s killings and “ensure that security personnel suspected of responsibility for the deadly use of force are held accountable through due process. The violent repression of peaceful protesters is unjustified and unacceptable.
“Our findings so far show that security personnel in places where lives have been lost have deliberately used tactics designed to kill while dealing with gatherings of people protesting hunger and extreme poverty.”
Nigeria has a history of cracking down on protesters. Nearly 60 people were killed across the country during demonstrations against police brutality in 2020, including in the Lekki neighborhood of Lagos, where soldiers opened fire on peaceful protesters.
