Russian flags, Nigerian lives and the internationalisation of the Hunger Protests

White, blue and red flags have emerged from the dust of the protests in Nigeria. For some inexplicable reason, Russian flags have been seen being waved by some protesters demanding an end to bad governance. About 40 persons have been arrested with these flags, including at least seven foreigners. The question today is what do […]

White, blue and red flags have emerged from the dust of the protests in Nigeria. For some inexplicable reason, Russian flags have been seen being waved by some protesters demanding an end to bad governance. About 40 persons have been arrested with these flags, including at least seven foreigners.

The question today is what do protests demanding an end to bad governance in a West African country have to do with Russia, which is governed by an elected dictator in the person of Vladimir Putin? And while poles and flags have long been associated, why have Poles with Russian flags been arrested in Nigeria?

From the street level, the average Nigerian doesn’t really care much about Russia and its international politics. They don’t even care much about Putin’s stranglehold on his country. They do care about the politics of their stomachs, where there is a furious contest of hunger and penury propelling the urge to protest.

I have read some explanations that the flags being waved at the protests are not Russian but the Nigerian Armed Forces flag because some of the protesters are calling for a return to military rule. This is not correct because the two flags are not the same. The Armed forces flag consists of the three horizontal colours: red, representing the army, navy blue, representing the navy, and sky blue representing the Airforce. The other flag that comes close is the Nigerian presidential standard consisting of four horizontal colours: red, navy blue, white, and green. This is exclusively for the use of the president of the country.

Some Nigerians are so ignorant of the flags that several times, Nigerians, seeing the presidential standard by the president during speech broadcasts, have protested the presence of a “foreign flag” by the president. But the insinuation that the flags waved by some protesters in Abuja and Kano were an invitation to the military to overthrow the government, especially as they made these chants in their protest songs, is one that lacks merit.

 What further throws that argument out of the way is the arrest of seven Poles for waving Russian flags during the protests. The arrest, announced by the DSS, has been confirmed by Stanislaw Gulinski, a Polish Consul to Nigeria, in a Reuters report. There also seems to be a deliberateness to the emergence of those flags, with the arrest of a tailor contracted to mass-produce the flags for the occasion. So, there is no spontaneity to their emergence.

Ignorance of Russian power moves in West Africa is a real thing. This power move has clearly manifested in the West African coup belt, where military junta-led Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have broken out of ECOWAS and formed a parallel Alliance of Sahel States (make of that acronym what you will). But Russian hands are clearly visible behind the ASS and have been seen shoring up the coup leaders of these countries, especially Niger Republic. The presence of the Russian Wagner Group is well-documented and much reported in Niger, where pro-regime protesters waved Russian flags.

It does not bode well for both the protesters, the very vital reason for the protests, and for Nigeria. We now have a generation of Nigerians completely unaware of what it was like to live under a military regime—25 years now since a general last called himself the Head of State. And even if democracy has delivered very little of the much-vaunted dividends it willy-nilly promised, it is a better and more sustainable system of governance. One that, as operated in Nigeria, remains flawed and in need of significant trimming, but one that we all have a right to shape and influence.

What these calls for a return to military rule mean is a re-enactment of our escapist tendencies. Because of our dissatisfaction with governance, we are now seeking, as we often do, quick fixes to the problem, a return to the drawing board, a start from scratch. What we have been reluctant to address is that if Nigerian democracy has failed to provide the right governance, it is because Nigerians as a whole, as a collective and as individuals, have failed to do their bits, through participation and making informed, rational choices in ensuring the right kind of persons are allowed to contest and be elected.

The failure of governance that Nigerians are protesting is both a failure of the elected and the electorate, and a quick-fix military intervention will not compensate for our collective failings. Instead, we ought to demand, within the framework of the law, good governance.

As is typical, as a people, we have had a history of being messy protesters. These ones, as I predicted in my column last week, have not been any different. Why do we need at least 22 people to die in the legitimate civic expression of their legitimate grievance and frustration with their country and those charged with running it?

The protests have since been contaminated with viral videos and images of mass-scale looting happening in several cities. Curfews have had to be imposed in some states to curtail the looting spree. The images we have seen over the last few days have demonstrated the problems we have been facing in this country, a painful reality. Once the opportunity presents itself, Nigerian politicians or Nigerian citizens will more often than not, take to looting, whether through budget padding, unfair wages, allowances, or contract inflation, or through breaking and entering.

It is a shame to have to admit this, but the leaders we love to castigate are products of the society that also produces the shop looters and tyre burners. While the temptation is to import products and seemingly outsource governance as well, we must not encourage either foreign or military intervention in the democratic space.

We have had this wrong the whole time. We need to fix ourselves first before we fix the country. We have to get things right at the level of being good citizens who can then have reasonable demands and expectations from their political leaders. While this is a long-term goal, the immediate need is for the hunger ravaging the land and causing Nigerians to protest, burn, and loot to be addressed with greater urgency, care, and sincerity than what President Tinubu brought as his address to the nation on Sunday.

Unfortunately, instead of that speech calming nerves, it incensed them and injected greater impetus into the protests. Instead of triggering Rema’s ‘Baby Calm Down’ in the head of the average Nigerian, it instead triggered Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Really Care About Us.’ And that is also the problem.

Not everything foreign, shiny and polished as it seems is always better. And short-term fixes should not become the standard aspirations of Nigerians. Both the Nigerian leaders and the people must know this and accept this for these protests, and the lives lost in them, to have any meaning for the better Nigeria we hope to see; one where a Nigerian can afford to live and eat a decent meal and not have to die on the streets protesting for it.