Supporters of President Bola Tinubu have dismissed growing online calls for protests modelled on the youth-led uprising in Nepal, warning that such actions could spiral into unrest worse than Nigeria’s 2020 #EndSARS movement.
Our correspondent collected from Saturday PUNCH that social media users have been invoking Nepal’s revolution, where youth anger over political corruption toppled a prime minister earlier this week.
Protesters there set fire to the Supreme Court, parliament, and other state buildings.
Activists in Nigeria, including Juwon Sanyaolu of the Take-it-Back Movement, urged youths to take inspiration from Nepal, warning that the government’s handling of hardship could spark mass demonstrations.
But pro-government voices have urged caution, as former presidential aide Reno Omokri said, “We reject for Nigeria the Nepali breakdown of law and order and senseless looting mislabelled as a protest. Even the Nepali people are now regretting it.”
He warned security agencies to be vigilant against “agent provocateurs.”
Comedian Seyi Law also weighed in, arguing that those calling for revolution were ignoring the devastating consequences in Nepal.
“They think revolution won’t affect the politicians they love. Keep fanning what you can’t sustain,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, civil society organisations struck a different tone as Enefa Georgewill, chairman of the Rivers Civil Society Organisations, said, “The government must take a clue from what the Nepalese people have done and retrace their steps.”
Debo Adeniran of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights stressed that while Nepal’s case was different, Nigeria’s worsening economic crisis mirrored some of the frustrations that fuelled the Asian protests.
Reverend Yomi Kasali, General Overseer of the Foundation of Truth Assembly, warned that “no country is immune to revolution,” urging churches and communities to do more to help the poor.