OPINION: #EndSARS protest and need for radical politics in Nigeria
By Salihu Moh. LUKEMAN
Radical politics defined by commitment to principles of social change was a feature of opposition Nigerian politics. Associated mainly with Action Group (AG), Northern Element Progressive Union (NEPU), to some extent National Council of Nigeria and Cameroun (NCNC) and their alliance partners under United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA) in the First Republic and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) and their partners Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) in the Second Republic, radical politics was the defining identity of politicians and activists committed to issues of social change in Nigeria.
With the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2013 based on declared progressive commitment, to what extant can we make claim to radical politics? How closer or farther is APC and our leaders to radical politics based on demonstrated commitment to social change? Part of the attributes confirming our commitment to radical politics is the welfarist policy credentials of National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) now upgraded to Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management.
Combined with ambitious infrastructural initiatives in the country, the programme is oriented to ensure sustained and inclusive economic growth, reduced poverty rates and closing the wide inequality gap between the rich and the poor based on four pillars, namely, N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), Home Grown School Feeding and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP). These are initiatives that should confirm APC’s progressive credentials. Often, claims for or against the progressive credentials of the party are made without any reference to these realities.
Being a progressive party should be expected to make the party and our leaders easily accessible to citizens based on which negotiating and engaging APC’s progressive initiatives of governments shouldn’t be a problem. Without doubt, the current ongoing youth protest across the country, calling for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police otherwise popularly known as #EndSARS protest, highlights some levels of citizens frustration, especially by our young people in relation to engaging initiatives of government aimed at resolving our societal problems.
The protest and its popularity among our young people are indication of the urgency for our politics to become more responsive and oriented to attract wider citizens participation. Intuitively, the ongoing protest is a clarion call on our political leaders in APC to respond to growing demands both within the party and by Nigerians to ensure that the progressive credentials of APC are oriented based on commitment to promote radical politics. What is the requirement for radical politics? How can commitment to radical politics resolve the problems of our young people?
Jonathan Pugh in a 2009 publication, What is Radical Politics Today clarified that “radical politics not only gets to the roots of a problem, if it is effective, it also turns over or ‘roots out’ and redefines how society functions. This does not mean radical politics is confined to particular causes or issues. We look to radical politics to provide an alternative world view of the world, when that world is in trouble.”
The current protest around #EndSARS is a proof that Nigerian youth are troubled, and they are at the receiving end of all the trouble our country is facing. In many respects, the protests highlighted deficit in terms of government initiatives meeting the expectations of Nigerian young people. Such deficit could emanate from poor communication strategy. In order to address the problem, there is the need for government to immediately review the implementation of government welfare initiatives and ensure the provision of specific packages targeting young people, in addition to meeting the specific demands of the #EndSARS protests.
Our youth have woken up to the challenge of political engagement to address problems affecting them and have taken over our streets and the airwaves. At best, government and all of us actively involved in politics are doing catch up. For more than a week, across all our media, both locally and internationally, news about Nigeria is all around the protest by our young people. The protest is very popular, and the leadership appears very determined to continue with the protest. Being the party in government, are we going to painstakingly work for democratic resolution? Or are we going to opt for authoritarian measures to end the protests?
Dr. Lukman is the DG of Progressive Governors Forum. This position does not represent the view of any APC governor or the forum
