Political Movements

Following nationwide demonstrations—first against the elite Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and then the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, its successor—the Buhari administration has abolished the former and promised wide-ranging reforms of the police. On October 18 the inspector general of police (IG) announced that the International Committee of the Red Cross would provide training in humanitarian law and human rights issues with respect to the use of force in arrest and detention. The IG also said that other “development partners” will be providing additional training, but he did not name them or provide details. Demonstrations have taken place in Lagos, Abuja, Warri, Enugu, and Makurdi; all except Abuja are in the predominantly Christian south. There have been no reports of demonstrations in Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, or Maiduguri, all located in the predominantly Muslim north. The authorities have closed some roads in Lagos, leading to some factory closures. The media is reporting two deaths in the Yoruba state of Osun in conjunction with an attack on the motorcade of the governor during #EndSARS protests on Saturday. While the police remain the principal focus, demonstrators are also protesting Nigeria's bad governance. The demonstrators, according to Western media, cite grievances ranging from poor educational opportunities to electricity shortages. There also appears to be an age dimension: most demonstrators are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. Indeed, at least some of the protesters are pushing back against Nigeria's deeply conservative social norms. Social class plays a role as well—many demonstrators have access to laptops and social media. They claim that the police single out young people with laptops and label them as criminal "yahoo boys," a popular term for cyber fraudsters in Nigeria. For many—perhaps most—of the accused, this is a misnomer: SARS has been known to target those working in Lagos’ fast-growing (licit) tech scene. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google’s Africa team have come out in support of the protesters. Has the “Arab Spring” come to Lagos? If the demonstrations are owned by relatively cosmopolitan, urban young people that enjoy the benefits of technology and a modicum of Western education, they are likely to fizzle out. A reality of Nigeria is that it is profoundly conservative across its religious and ethnic divisions. Up to now, the security services have been restrained with the demonstrators. However, the Nigerian army has already said publicly that it will defend the state against demonstrators if necessary. Security service violence against demonstrators, should it happen, could make the current unrest much worse. Learn more about John Campbell's upcoming book, Nigeria and the Nation-State: Rethinking Diplomacy with the Postcolonial World, out in early December 2020.

Nkasi Wodu is a lawyer, peacebuilding practitioner, and development expert based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. In 2017, Nigerian youths adopted a campaign against brutality from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The objective was to catalyze mass action against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit of the NPF set up to respond to armed robberies. The campaign, which adopted a mix of online and offline strategies, was popularly known on social media as #EndSARS. Over ten thousand Nigerians signed a petition and submitted it to the National Assembly calling for the unit’s disbandment, citing various abuses against Nigerian youths. Although efforts were made by the National Assembly, the National Human Rights Commission, the police chief, and even the vice president, not much changed. Nigerian youths are once again on the streets protesting against SARS. On social media, many young Nigerians recount gory stories of their encounters with the squad, with some reporting cases of brutality, abduction, extortion, extrajudicial killings and false imprisonment. These stories corroborate a 2016 Amnesty International report [PDF] detailing patterns of human rights violations committed by SARS. A common feature of SARS operations is officers’ penchant for patrolling in plain clothes, carrying assault weapons and using gestapo-like tactics against supposed suspects. While SARS is notorious for its brutality, human rights abuses by security forces are not confined to the NPF. In 2015, Amnesty International published a report which detailed a series of atrocities committed by the Nigerian military. Human rights violations by security forces date back to Nigeria’s military dictatorships, when security agencies such as the police were established to safeguard military regimes rather than to protect and serve communities. Notwithstanding the advent of democratic rule in 1999, this mindset remains deeply ingrained. Police officers and military personnel have been deployed to intimidate peaceful protesters as well as arrest journalists and other critics of government. A major driver of human rights abuses committed by SARS and other security operatives is the lack of accountability for their actions. In many situations, security operatives who violate human rights are shielded by the police hierarchy; victims are afraid to speak out for fear of being targeted again. A June 2020 Amnesty report [PDF] stated that the government has failed to prosecute a single SARS operative since the National Assembly passed the Anti-Torture Act of 2017 [PDF]. Another factor is that the enabling legislation for the NPF, the Police Act [PDF], is obsolete. The act, which was adopted in 1943, leaves broad discretionary powers in the hands of police officers. These allow officers to perform warrantless searches and make arrests based on mere suspicion of guilt—or even an intent to commit an offence. This is the crux of many allegations against SARS: victims’ phones have been seized without a warrant, while others have been arrested for their tattoos or dreadlocks. Last month, President Buhari signed the New Police Act into law to provide a more effective and well-organized police force, with transparent operational standards and measures to hold wayward officers accountable. However, critics argue the new act retains some of the discretionary powers that enable human rights abuses. Several remedies are available to victims of human rights abuses in Nigeria. Victims can petition the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which was established to assist victims of rights violations. The NHRC’s powers are limited, however, in that the commission can only make recommendations, which the government can then choose whether to implement (or not). Another option is for victims to defend their rights in court. Unfortunately, many afflicted by police violence cannot afford a lawyer to help navigate the long, expensive judicial process. Sometimes cases drag on for years and even when damages are awarded, the police seldom pay. Although the Legal Aid Council provides free legal assistance and representation to disadvantaged citizens, the council is poorly funded and its lawyers are often overburdened. The Nigerian government should listen to the millions of voices calling for police reform and see an opportunity to transform relations between police and communities. Although the inspector general of police gave an address on October 11 disbanding SARS, the establishment of a new tactical unit to replace it has ensured protests continue. Protesters also insist the government needs to back its declarations signaling reform with action, such as prosecuting officers involved in brutality. All over Nigerian social media, new stories are surfacing that show police putting down protests by force. As the protests continue across Nigeria and spread worldwide, the government will need to recognize that coercion cannot address the issue. President Buhari should accede to protesters’ demands. Negotiations between protesters and the government are about more than police brutality.  Young Nigerians are crying out for wholesale reforms in governance and the justice system. Efforts to reform the system are necessary and overdue. Only once meaningful reforms are implemented can the rights of citizens be truly guaranteed.

There is little sense of national cohesion in Nigeria, and protests tend to be along ethnic and religious lines rather than national. Like the 2012 demonstrations against the Goodluck Jonathan administration's efforts to reduce the fuel subsidy, current protests against the police are exceptional in that they appear to be occurring across the country, bridging the usual ethnic and religious boundaries. They also appear to be strongly supported by the Nigerian diaspora, which is linking them to Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States and Europe. The 2012 demonstrations collapsed in the aftermath of minor government concessions and the buying-off of certain trade unions. The coming weeks will show whether these demonstrations have any greater staying power. As in much of post-colonial Africa, police in Nigeria are widely hated for their brutality and corruption. (The Nigeria Police Service was a British colonial creation, used primarily to keep down the indigenous population.) The focus of the current demonstrations has been the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a plainclothes unit known for its abuses targeting young people. The demonstrations were triggered by the alleged SARS killing of a young man during an October 3 stop-and-search operation. Amnesty International has documented eighty-two cases of SARS extrajudicial killings and abuse over the past thirty months or so. President Muhammadu Buhari responded to the demonstrations by promising to disband SARS as a first step toward a thorough—and badly needed—reform of the police. The promise is viewed with skepticism by protestors, who have also taken aim at the new Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, which Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu announced would replace SARS. A complication is that Nigeria is in the midst of a nationwide crime wave. SARS was initially established to counter criminal gangs operating in Lagos, the country's largest city, and later was deployed across the country. The diaspora, especially in the United States, appears to be playing a major supporting role. There have been diaspora-led demonstrations in Atlanta, Berlin, London, and New York that tie in Black Lives Matter protests. Social media is playing an important role in coordinating the demonstrations, in Nigeria and abroad. According to Western media, American rappers Chance the Rapper and Cardi B are calling attention to the demonstrations. It remains to be seen whether the demonstrations will become more significant abroad than at home.

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Anthony Carroll is founding director of Acorus Capital, a private equity fund investing in Africa, and a vice president of Manchester Trade Limited, an international business advisory firm. He has over forty years of experience working with Africa and is an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Andrew Mlangeni’s death last week represents something of a passing of the guard for South Africa’s liberation struggle. Andrew was the last living defendant of the 1963 Rivonia trial, which resulted in the sentencing of Andrew and ten others, among them, Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and, most famously, Nelson Mandela. In a highly publicized trial, the defendants were found guilty of sedition and conspiracy. The Rivonia trial and the Sharpeville massacre, which occurred three years earlier, were turning points in the world’s view of apartheid South Africa. The images of unarmed protesters being shot in the back and the regal presence of Nelson Mandela in a Pretoria dock shouting “Amandla” were indelible. Andrew and seven co-conspirators were arrested in 1963 at Denis Goldberg’s Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, a suburb of Johannesburg. Goldberg, who died a few weeks ago, was a fellow member of the uMkhonto we Sizwe (UK), the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Denis was arrested along with Rusty Berstein, Bob Hippler, Arthur Goldreich, and later Harold Wolpe. All were members of the Jewish left that supported the ANC by offering legal counsel, modest shelter, and even more modest finances to a movement always on the run.  At the time, the only unknown outcome of the Riovonia trial was whether the key defendants would be sentenced to death. Perhaps due to the international attention of trial, a sympathetic judge, and an all-star defense team, Andrew and his co-defendants were spared the death penalty, but received life sentences. What always struck me about Andrew Mlangeni was his humility and integrity. Unlike Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, and Nelson Mandela, Mlangeni was from the Orange Free State and later moved to Soweto with his widowed mother. Owing to poverty, he dropped out of school to help support his mother by working as a golf caddie, factory worker, and bus driver. He became active in the labor movement, but his frustration with the oppression of apartheid and the horror of Sharpeville caused him to be among the first members of the UK. Andrew was trained in China and later secreted back into South Africa. Two years later, he began a life sentence on Robben Island following the Rivonia verdict.  For over twenty years, Andrew Mlangeni occupied the cell next to Nelson Mandela on Robben Island. Like Mandela, he generally lacked bitterness and was optimistic about the peaceful evolution of a democratic and non-racial South Africa. In 1994, he was elected to serve in South Africa’s first multi-racial parliament and remained an icon of the liberation struggle without ever intending to be so. His autobiography is entitled “Backroom Boy.” About four years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Ahmed Kathrada at the Lilliesleaf Farm at an event honoring the contributions of the Norwegian people to the anti-apartheid struggle. Just months before, Ahmed had openly criticized the administration of Jacob Zuma and the diversion of some ANC leaders from serving the people of South Africa to serving themselves. Andrew also found the courage to speak out against the predatory nature of the Zuma presidency and ANC leadership, who, he said, ”were no longer interested in improving the lives of our people.” It was again the courage of Kathrada and Mlangeni that helped South Africa to bring down a corrupt regime, this time that of Jacob Zuma, and bring to power credible leadership that they had long fought and suffered for.

CFR Senior Fellow for Africa Michelle Gavin interviews founding leader of the Alliances and Partnerships Program at Human Rights Watch Maina Kiai.

CFR Senior Fellow for Africa Michelle Gavin interviews founding leader of the Alliances and Partnerships Program at Human Rights Watch Maina Kiai.

Thirty years after South African President F.W. de Klerk ordered his release from Cape Town’s Victor Vorster Prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation as a genuine hero of the twentieth century holds up. With de Klerk and others, Mandela led the successful transition from apartheid to non-racial democracy, forestalling the race war that many thought was inevitable. Nelson Mandela’s outreach to the privileged white minority preserved South Africa’s modern economy, unlike in Zimbabwe where liberation movements expelled or made settlers unwelcome and the economy collapsed. His unswerving commitment to democracy and the rule of law grounds South Africa’s constitution, which is regarded as among the world’s best in terms of protecting human rights. Nelson Mandela faced criticism from Robert Mugabe, the deceased Zimbabwe tyrant, and many others. That criticism was and still is, essentially, that Mandela conceded too much when he agreed to continued control of the economy by whites and that he did not follow a policy of redistribution of white wealth to the black majority. These criticisms are ahistorical. The transition was a negotiated settlement between the liberation forces of which his African National Congress was the most important. The apartheid-era National Party maintained control of the state and its security apparatus. In other words, the end of apartheid did not represent the liberation movements’ defeat of the National Party. Without the compromises Mandela made, a peaceful transition would have been unlikely and the prospect of a race war and economic collapse would have increased. Today, South Africa faces slow rates of economic growth, the persistence of poverty, especially among the black majority, and poor governance exemplified by the Jacob Zuma administration. Despite these challenges, the institutions established by the constitution enables South Africa to persevere, because it provides a framework for addressing the challenges that persist. 

On December 6, the Department of State Security (DSS) stormed into an Abuja courtroom and illegally detained journalist Omoyele Sowore. The episode is deeply disappointing to American friends of Nigeria who are invested in that country’s democratic trajectory. The DSS flagrantly violated the rule of law and the sanctity of a courtroom by violently manhandling Sowore and causing the judge to flee her own chambers. The episode unfurled in full view of national and international media, dragging Nigeria’s international reputation through the mud. Sowore is a Nigerian citizen, but his wife and children are American citizens. He lives in New Jersey, where he publishes the well-regarded online newspaper “Sahara Reporters.” New Jersey’s two senators have issued blistering statements on his arrest. Senator Bob Menendez characterized Sowore’s seizure as a “blatant miscarriage of Justice…symptomatic of closing political and media space in Nigeria.” He promised to work with the American ambassador in Nigeria to secure Sowore’s release. Sen. Corey Booker, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, called on Nigeria to “cease its attacks on freedom of expression.” The U.S. State Department tweeted “respect for the rule of law, judicial independence, political and media freedom, and due process are key tenets of #democracy.” Others denouncing the episode have included Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and Amnesty International.  On Monday in Nigeria, a coalition of civil society organizations issued an ultimatum, promising mass protests if their demands are not met in fourteen days. Among other things, they are asking the government release detained journalists, obey court orders, and stop restricting free speech. The Punch, a daily Nigerian newspaper, published a scathing article detailing the Buhari administrations past abuses against other journalists and public figures. The newspaper promised that, henceforth, in all of its publications, it will refer to Buhari by his military rank, major general, and to his administration as a regime.  Sowore has long been a democratic activist and a thorn in the side of Nigerian governments, and Sahara Reporters regularly reports on the corruption of Nigerian political figures. In 2019, Sowore ran unsuccessfully for the presidency. In the aftermath of those flawed elections, he organized a protest dubbed “Revolution Now,” and called for “Days of Rage.” This seems to be the nominal basis for his arrest, with the government in response accusing him of treason and seeking to overthrow the government, among other fanciful charges.  The Nigerian government’s response thus far has been lame: Garba Shehu, media spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari, excused DSS by saying that Sowore is a “person of interest” and DSS accordingly acted properly. In fact, this latest episode is the culmination of months of extra-legal government steps against Sowore. The DSS has refused to release him on bail twice, contrary to court orders. Further, there have been numerous attacks on journalists, and there is a bill in the National Assembly that would make “hate speech” a capital offense. In January, for example, security services stormed multiple offices of an influential newspaper after it had reported on military setbacks in the fight against Boko Haram. President Buhari moved quickly to end the occupation, suggesting he had lost control. It is unclear whether Sowore is being held for his political activity, his journalism, or both. In any event, the episode is a public relations disaster for the Buhari administration. Either the administration is, indeed, moving to restrict freedom of the press in Nigeria or the DSS is operating outside the president’s authority. Either is bad for Nigeria. 

The Muslim Brotherhood, once Egypt’s largest opposition movement and a standard-bearer for Islamist groups around the world, has been once again driven underground as Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has consolidated power.

As protesters in Hong Kong use increasingly creative means to demand change, the possibility that Beijing will respond with force is growing.

Nigeria’s challenges are multi-faceted, fundamental, and reach from one end of the country to the other. Over the past week, following another violent clash with the security services, the leader of a Shia movement was ordered to be granted bail; Borno state was hit with massive attacks by Boko Haram, taking the lives of scores of civilians and military personnel; and the leader of a small political party, who is also the editor of Sahara Reporters, was arrested shortly before planned protests could begin. Government responses to these crises appear so far to have been ineffective. Ibrahim el-Zakzaky, the leader of the Shia Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and his wife have been in detention since 2015, when Nigerian army soldiers raided his headquarters and killed several hundred of his followers. At the time, el-Zakzaky and his wife were said to have been badly wounded. The Nigerian authorities have said that they have been receiving medical attention ever since they were taken into custody. There have been repeated IMN demonstrations, often bloody, calling for their release. The Kaduna State High Court has granted them bail to receive medical treatment in India, and the State Security Service has indicated that it will comply. The Buhari administration proscribed the IMN in late July following a recent deadly clash. However, were el-Zakzaky or his wife to die in prison in Nigeria, IMN reaction would be fierce and likely lead to more deadly confrontations with security services. It is unclear what advantage Abuja gains from Zakzaky’s continued detention. It would be wise for the federal government to allow them to go to India for medical treatment. To the northeast, the Multilateral Joint Task Force (MJTF) is denying reports that Boko Haram attacked a military base at Baga and killed dozens of soldiers. The MJTF spokesman is a Nigerian colonel. Unfortunately, Nigerian military spokesmen have little credibility. According to CFR’s Nigeria Security Tracker Weekly Update, there were an estimated 212 deaths—including soldiers, Boko Haram members, and civilians—associated with Boko Haram in Borno state between July 27 to August 2. Whatever happened at Baga, Boko Haram’s factions are on the upsurge. In Lagos, the commercial capital of the country and the heart of its modern economy, plans are underway for a mass demonstration tagged “Days of Rage” and calling for “Revolution Now” for a better Nigeria. The police have warned residents to stay away from the demonstration, attendance at which “amounts to felony and terrorism,” according to local media. The protest is being organized by the former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omowole Sowore, who is probably best known for his online publication Sahara Reporters. The goals of the “Days of Rage” are vague. The AAC has said the protests will continue “until the country is put on the right path of honour where justice prevails,” according to local media.  With the country’s many brewing crises, a danger is overreaction by the security forces in Lagos, and, in the event that el-Zakzaky or his wife dies in government custody, to IMN protestors in Abuja. Overreaction could turn demonstrations into deadly confrontations, as has happened in Nigeria’s past. Meanwhile, government strategies have failed to destroy Boko Haram. In the face of these multiple challenges, the Buhari administration says that the security forces are working to address them and called on citizens to be patient. 

The bill’s future remains uncertain, but no amendments can change the ugly reality of shipping anyone off to Beijing’s incommunicado torture chambers, its denial of competent legal defenders, and its unfair trials.

Increasing collateral damage is an effective way of fighting censorship and expanding internet freedom. If we want to keep it that way, we ought to know its limitations