The figures don’t lie
Graphic scenes posted on social media on Tuesday night showed demonstrators fleeing the peaceful protest at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos as security forces, including soldiers, shot live rounds at the crowd, killing at least 12 people. Ambulances were reported to have been turned back by soldiers. Witnesses said the gate’s lights were turned off and CCTV cameras removed before the shooting began. Nigeria’s army posted a series of tweets claiming that reports which accused soldiers of shooting at the scene were false.
Social media has allowed activists to crowdfund protests and access the resources of the massive Nigerian diaspora. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted a tweet on Wednesday encouraging his nearly 5-million followers to contribute.
When two Nigerian banks closed one protest group’s accounts, the group converted its savings to bitcoin.
Addressing the nation on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari spoke about the unrest that has gripped the country but made no mention of the shootings on Tuesday night.
Buhari, a retired general who was elected president five years ago and previously headed a military junta in the 1980s, has a grim record. Amnesty International says security forces killed at least 150 activists and demonstrators in the southeast (a claim denied by the army), and a judicial inquiry found that soldiers killed hundreds of Shia Muslims in Zaria, in the north, in 2015.
Buhari portrays himself as Mr Honest, but his attitude towards women is suspect. On a visit to Germany, he said: “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.”
Aisha Buhari had said she might not back her husband at the next election unless he got a grip on his government.
Nigeria has one of the world’s fastestgrowing populations, projected to overtake the US to become the world’s third-largest by 2050.
The World Bank reports Nigeria has surpassed India as the country with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty.
A 2016 index of world policing ranked Nigeria’s force as the worst out of 127 countries.