A peaceful protest, or march, or demonstration is understood worldwide as a cry for justice. Looting, on the other hand, springs from baser motives of envy, greed or both. Arson is even more ominous, for it comes from the urge to destroy, to demolish. It is nihilism and emanates from envy or spite, malice or other primordial destructive instincts.
When a government restricts or prohibits peaceful protests, it is a signal of intolerance and evidence of unethical or bad governance. It means that the delicate compact between the governor and the governed has been breached. It is an ominous sign that extra-judicial measures are no longer far-fetched and has become an option. Any protester in those circumstances must be ready for anything and everything, including the worst-case scenarios, which might include the loss of liberty, limbs and life. The government, on its part, must also be prepared for the worst including a rebellion, civil disobedience, insurrection and civil war.
Now, no part of Nigerian culture tolerates looting, stealing, burglary or robbery. Kidnapping is in a class by itself. It is considered heinous, even worse than robbery, as it is regarded as closest to murder or man slaughter. The belief is well founded that anyone who could kidnap his fellow citizen for ransom could also kill. The many Nigerian bodies discovered in shallow graves, in wells, in streams, forests, rivers are testimonies to the ultimate homicidal intents of kidnappers.
No part of the Nigerian society justifies stealing because the thief was hungry. In the Igbo areas, the tradition dates to time immemorial; and it is a common saying that it is more honourable to beg than to steal. Even during the Civil War in the worst periods of famine in Biafra, which led to the kwashiorkor catastrophe fatal to hundreds of thousands, especially the very young, decidedly hungry, pitiable, mothers who harvested other people’s cassava were not spared the full wrath of the law, and in some places it meant a divorce or even exile. Nigerians should resist the platitude, the fallacy, that people looted because they were hungry. It is false; it will define our morality downwards and disgrace centuries-old traditions. It will be a backward step in the march for more peaceful virtuous life.
The lessons of the ENDSARS protest are that the peaceful protests began so well and ended tragically because the leaders did not carry the planning to its logical conclusion. Obvious gaps in the arrangements eventually permitted what happened in the end. The arson and the looting became the disgrace of an event that would have been one of the most glorious acts of the new generation. The approximate cost of the arson and looting has not been computed but informed guesses are that the nation has lost between N1 and N2 trillion Naira, counting only the public assets that must necessarily be replaced with the tax payer’s money. Losses of private property are also as heart-breaking and unforgivable. It was the worst of us.
Looters and arsonists should be easy to deter with close circuit television (CCTV), knowing the footage would identify them in their ignoble act. But where they are not deterred, the CCTV would help in rounding them up and getting them to account for their shameful deeds. The total number of arrests must be in hundreds. They should be arraigned and prosecuted diligently and if found guilty should face the maximum penalty as deterrence. The government should adopt the CCTV as part of its public security policy. Governments, Federal and States, corporate organizations, firms should go back to the drawing board to plug the hole and spare a thought on how to pre-empt, prevent, and protect against arson and looting. This is a new threat.
Common sense calculations on these sordid incidents inform us that we are all going to pay for the trillions of Naira lost in the melee and the destruction. The BRT buses, nearly N4 billion worth must be replaced; NAFDAC complexes must be rebuilt, government offices and installations must be rebuilt, the Igbosere High Court complex must be reconstructed, score of police stations and their equipment must be replaced, hundreds of motor vehicles we must buy.
Indeed, there is no item that was looted or destroyed that will not be paid for by us through our sweat. In a season when we are financing the national budget partly through foreign loans, these incidents have dug us deeper into debt.
It is always appalling to contemplate shooting at arsonists and looters and most law enforcement officers agonize over bloodshed in the streets. But it is sometimes appropriate to ponder on the options left for officers saddled with the responsibility of protecting public assets and preserving law and order. Firing at the throng should never be an option because when bullets begin to fly they are hard to control. The looting of the palliatives seems a deserved punishment for administrative incompetence and greed of the bureaucrats who probably hoarded the supplies waiting for the Yuletide when the prices would hit the roof.
Now the prevention of future acts of arson and looting sequel to public protests demands that the leaders of the protest must do the extra work to police the protests by themselves if they could not procure the police to help them. And a Police force eager for public safety do not need to be ‘beggged’ to help protect and guide a public protest. But where the Police decline to assist, protest leaders must assume the mantle. It means a lot of work but the alternative is too messy, as we have seen with the results of the ENDSARS protests.
It means setting out in great detail the movement of the protest – from its starting point to its point of dispersal. Everyone who is going to participate in the protest should know where to begin and when to end and the monitoring of the schedule must be tight and strict. The leaders must assume strict liability and have at the back of their minds the essence of Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong, it will.
Blaming street urchins, hoodlums and agberos is not an alternative to a better management of the protests. The idea of a protest being hijacked by elements alien to the protests is a testimony that the leaders of the protest did not produce their best.