By Babatunde Ayedoju

The 10-days #EndBadGovernance protest that took place at the beginning of August was, surely, not the first protest to be recorded in Nigeria, as the history of protests in this country dates back to the colonial period, at least. However, that particular protest stood out because of certain incidents that took place both during and after the protest.

It would be recalled that during the demonstrations, some individuals were seen waving what was identified to be the flag of Russia and calling on the military to intervene by taking over the government, leading to the arrest of about 783 protesters by the police.

According to a statement by the renowned lawyer and human rights activists, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), in August, a total of 2,111 protesters were arrested by the police nationwide in connection with the protest, with Kano State accounting for 873 of them. Other states included Gombe, Kaduna, Katsina, Plateau, Sokoto, Borno, Cross-River, and Federal Capital Territory Abuja, among many others.

Noting that a good number of the arrested protesters were accused of waving Russian flags during the protest, Femi Falana had pointed out that it was going to be very difficult for the police to convince the court that waving a foreign flag amounted to an offence in a country where churches and hotels hoist the flags of other nations within their premises.

He, however, noted that the seven Polish students who were arrested while taking photographs of the protest in Kano could be charged with espionage to justify that the protest had foreign backing.

At the end of the day, about 76 suspects were arraigned before the Federal High Court, Abuja, especially those who were arrested for flying the flag of Russia. The matter began to provoke an outrage from civil society organisations (CSOs) and human rights groups when some minors between ages 14 and 17, about 67 of them, turned out to be among the arraigned suspects for  waving the flag of another country.

According to a Federal Government Counsel, Rimazonte Ezekiel, the action of these suspects amounted to an attempt to undermine Nigeria’s democracy and sovereignty by promoting a foreign agenda. He also argued that the so-called minors were adults.

During the trial, about four of the minors were said to have collapsed in the court, provoking outrage from Nigerians. The court granted a N10 million bail to each of the 76 suspects including  the 67 minors.

However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu directed the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to ensure the immediate release of the detained minors. The President also instructed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction to prioritise the immediate welfare of the minors and ensure that they are with their parents or guardians, regardless of their location within the country.

Likewise, an Administrative Committee led by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs  would  to be established to review all aspects related to the minors’ arrest, detention, treatment, and eventual release. Mr President also ordered an investigation into the actions of all law enforcement agents and officials involved in the minors’ arrest and legal processing, promising necessary disciplinary measures against discovered cases of misconduct .

Recently, during an interview, Mr Falana who condemned the prosecution of the minors for treason insisted that hoisting foreign flags, including that of Russia, is not a crime in Nigeria.

According to the legal luminary, hotels hoist flags of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and several other European countries in order to look international. He added that a lot of churches also display the flag of Israel because they think that Israel is a Christian country.

However, according to a Premium Times investigation, the act of waving Russian flag is not new in Africa, as it has been reported in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic earlier. The investigation revealed that during the #EndBadGovernance protest in August, some people employed social media, especially Telegram, to propagate messages about the protest, calling for military intervention and foreign intervention as well.

The report which identified a particular Telegram channel called ‘Africa Initiative,’ said, “Using Tgstat, a Telegram analysis tool, we accessed the channel ‘Africa Initiative,’ which describes itself as a ‘Russian information agency about events in Africa.’ The channel has versions in Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. It is filled with narratives about Russia/Africa relationship and pro-coup posts that praised Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. The channel also references its website: afrinz.ru.”

According to the Premium Times investigation, the channel was created in October 2023 with about 200 subscribers. Towards the protest, the channel grew till the membership reached 50,000, but declined after the protest, and it was said to have made posts about the protest around the time that the issue of flying Russian flag came up.

Professor Adediran Ikuomola, a criminologist, while pointing out that he had never witnessed a protest in Nigeria where people flew a foreign flag before this one, described what happened as an institutional problem. Professor Ikuomola noted that those flags must have been sewn by some adults who gave them to the children, as a flag is not something that can be picked from the streets at random.

He said, “People don’t believe in the state anymore. They no longer seem to share a bond with the state. That is why people keep asking if this is a country, a nation or a conglomeration of ethnic groups. An American would never do anything like this. Why would the children even be on the streets at that time if there was proper parenting?

“That sense of being a Nigerian is fading away. What happened showed that people are not proud of being Nigerians. If those children could do what they did, what will happen when they become adults?” he added.

Professor Ikuomola, while saying that things have never been this bad, recommended good governance as the way out. He said that this should serve as a lesson for the state to put things right, adding that nobody can use force to create allegiance to the state.

In the opinion of Professor Simon Ehiabhi, a professor of African Political History, in determining whether it is a crime to wave the flag of another country or not, the circumstance surrounding the action matters. He said that displaying the flag of Russia during a protest can create the impression that Russia sponsored the protest, and that is criminal, treacherous and amounts to felony.

His words: “It is not wrong to display the flag of another country, as long as it is not inciting, but what happened during the protest was inciting and wrong.”

Professor Ehiabhi noted that the present generation of Nigerians have lost the heart of patriotism, adding that it would take at least 16 years to restore the lost sense of patriotism. He said, “we need to reform our curriculum by teaching children national values from kindergarten; six years in primary school, six years in secondary school and at least four years in the university. That is how long it will take to raise a new set of Nigerians who will be patriotic.”

Professor Adedayo Afe, a professor of Legal History stated that one of the problems with Nigerian law is technicality, adding that it is not every matter that should end in court. He said that instead of charging the suspects to court for flying the flag of another country, the Federal Government should have explored alternative dispute resolution by counseling those caught in the act.

The don who identified hunger and poverty as major problems currently confronting Nigerians advised the Federal Government to concentrate on empowering youths to be able to do something meaningful with their lives.