The Lekki Tollgate in Lagos has no doubt become a metaphor for injustice. Its notoriety as the place where the Nigerian government demonstrated its scant regards for human life reverberates across the world.
When the CNN did an expose on the youth protest called ENDSARS last year, the ears of the world tingled. It occurred to it that, despite its pretext to democracy, Nigeria under Muhammadu Buhari was worse than the Iron Curtains and it has this phobia for people’s power.
Yesterday (Saturday), the government went ahead to demonstrate this phobia. It breathed down its dinosaur fire on demonstrators against the Lagos 2020 protest panel’s decision to give the concessionaire the go-ahead to operate the toll gate without a proper dispensation of the issues before it. In saner climes, this right is taken as given.
The government is merely being myopic about this periodic brimming of fire and brimstone on protesters. This is because democracy comes with the appurtenances of freedom and free speech. If runners of Nigerian democracy think that they can eat their cake and refuse to have its manifestations, they have a think coming.
Democracy is not about the big cars, the retinue of hangers-on and the big fat stomachs they acquire. Those who profess democratic qualities also have to allow free speech to reign. Freedom to ventilate the anger or disavowal of the people with how they are being governed is a fundamental right.
Let President Muhammadu Buhari and his Lagos governor know this. When they block the people’s rights to show their grievances, what they invariably do is allow angers to metastasize. God help them when these angers unfold in their burning fury.
- Popular Columnist, Dr Festus Adedayo sent this in from Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State
