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Abstract
Dictatorial regimes are known for their non-tolerance syndrome, including for peaceful protests. With manifest dictatorial tendencies, Nigeria, under the President Muhammadu Buhari, fiercely gagged the media and clamped on peaceful protests, believing them to be anti-government uprisings. Despite this repressive approach, the youths embarked on the #EndSARS protest to demand for police accountability. Although the movement could not achieve its desired objectives, it drew international attention to police brutality and unveiled how dictatorial perceptions deny even a democratic government an opportunity to retract its policy steps. This paper analyzes how the Nigerian state escalates its security problems through its perception of, and approach to, peaceful protests. Using data from field survey, acled and documentary media reports, this paper argues that Nigeria’s manifest dictatorial tendencies deny it the opportunity to take in protest demands to initiate pro-people policies that could address its security problems. The implication is that the security environment in the country continues to worsen.
Abstract
Since Israel’s war on Gaza in the aftermath of the October 2023 attacks, protests have virtually exploded across the world. We see them in Western countries as much as in the ‘Global South’ and the Arab world. In the US, university campuses have become one site of intense protest activity. For this issue’s Protest Voices section, editors Larbi Sadiki and Layla Saleh interviewed Professor Artz about his reflections on the pro-Palestine campus encampments at his university, and how his own research, teaching, and activism feed into one another. The interview with Professor Artz is followed by a short (anonymized) essay by a student protestor offering a first-hand account about why she protests.