Nigerian president demands protests halt, ignores shootings
LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday spoke to the nation about the unrest that has gripped the country in recent days, but without making any mention of the shootings of protesters at Lekki toll plaza Tuesday night that prompted an international outcry.
The military opened fire without warning on thousands of peaceful protesters singing the national anthem, killing at least 12 people, according to Amnesty International.
The shootings have been widely condemned, but Buhari did not speak of them at all in his address, instead urging people to stop their demonstrations.
“This government will not allow anybody or [any] groups to disrupt the peace of the nation,” he warned in his televised address, urging protesters to “resist the temptation of being used by some subversive elements to cause chaos with the aim of truncating our nascent democracy.”
“For you to do otherwise will amount to undermining national security and law and order,” he said. “Under no circumstances would this be tolerated.”
He called on Nigeria’s young people “to discontinue the street protests and constructively engage the government in finding solutions. Your voice has been heard loud and clear and we are responding.”
Buhari responded to the criticism he has received from fellow African heads of state and other world leaders by calling on them “to seek to know all the facts available before taking a position, or rushing to judgment and making hasty pronouncements.”
The street demonstrations began early this month with calls for Nigeria’s government to shut down the special anti-robbery squad, which was started to fight crime but carried out torture and killings, according to Amnesty International.
The #EndSARS campaign spread across the country and Buhari’s government announced that it would disband the police unit. The protest persisted with demonstrators calling for more widespread reforms of the police and an end to corruption.
Amnesty cited witnesses and camera images in its account of Tuesday night’s violence. Nigeria’s military has denied shooting at the protesters.
Violent unrest also broke out Wednesday in Lagos as mobs vandalized and burned police stations, courthouses, TV stations and a hotel. Smoke billowed from several locations in the city as police battled angry crowds with tear gas and gunfire.
Activists in the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter movement issued a statement Thursday in support of Nigeria’s anti-police brutality protesters.
“We join others around the world in demanding the Nigerian government end the attack on protesters and we call for justice for those who have been injured and killed by all Nigerian forces,” said the statement from the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 50 grassroots groups that make up the broader Black American liberation movement.
After a summertime surge of U.S. and international protests over the killing of Black people by law enforcement, the Black Lives activists said the reason Nigerians were demanding an end to the special squad is the same reason Black Americans have called for the defunding of police.
“The epidemic of police violence against Black people in a country led by Black faces proves what we have said time and again: violence imposed by law enforcement is about more than a few bad apples, the institution itself is irredeemable and exists to use violence to maintain a false sense of order in an unequal and unjust society,” the statement read. “We are one movement, one people, and we stand with the people of Nigeria.”
Also Thursday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement strongly condemning “the use of excessive force by military forces who fired on unarmed demonstrators in Lagos, causing death and injury.”
“We welcome an immediate investigation into any use of excessive force by members of the security forces. Those involved should be held to account in accordance with Nigerian law,” the State Department said.