By Comfort Olayinka
Arewa Intelligentsia Caucus, AIC, a sociopolitical group, has called on Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to urgently relieve the Service Chiefs of their duties, for allowing protesters to fly Russian flags in Kano and some states of the federation.
In a press statement jointly signed by Abubakar Ciroma, President, and Nasir Adamu, Publicity Secretary, the group specifically frowned upon the way protesters were raising Russian flags in Kano, during the second day of protest.
The group said it was not surprising when, on the first day of the #EndBadGovernance protest, “tacitly endorsed and supported by Governor Yusuf”, events took a violent turn, leading to the destruction of billboards and streetlights, looting of shops and public facilities, and attacks on flashy vehicles.
Despite a 24-hour curfew imposed by the Governor, the second day of the protest was marred by more violence. When security operatives attempted to disperse some youths who defied the curfew to continue the #EndBadGovernance protest, it was met with fierce resistance.
“But more worrying, in terms of the implication and significance of the protest, was the waving of the Russian flag by some protesters urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene in Nigeria.
“One has to be a fool to believe that those Russian flags were hurriedly and expressly delivered for use between the night of the first day of protest and the following morning.
“And why Russia? Is it because Putin has finally chosen to actively subscribe to the playground of proxy wars among world powers which West Africa has recently turned into, with his affiliation to political disruptions in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali?
“Undermining democracy has been a strategic objective of Russia’s African policy for the past two decades. Authoritarian governments lacking domestic checks and balances provide permissive environment for enabling Russian influence on the African continent.
“Russian interest to undercurrent democracy in Africa occurs accross a range of methods with disinformation. In the desperation by Moscow, 22 countries targeted for electoral interference and extra- constitutional claims to power.
“Sadly, 13 of the 28 countries where Russia is actively endangering democracy are in conflict. This according to researchers, represents over 3 -forth of African countries in conflict.
“Worst still, Russian support to military government in Sudan for example helped to derail the democratic transition in the country, thereby precipitating the ensuing conflict. It’s on record that 11 out of the 15 African countries with the highest levels of forced population displacement have been targets of Russian intervention to undermine democracy.
“African countries such as Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’ Ivoire, DRC, Egypt, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, all have different tales of woes of political interference by Russia.
“How could irate youths protesting against hunger and hardship pull together resources to procure the flag of another country notoriously noted to have decimated the political fortunes of many African countries. The answer is simple. They didn’t; they just did as instigated by some unpatriotic forces in high places.
“Some questions are pertinent: Where was the Governor who prides himself as the “Chief Security Officer of the state?” Are we to believe that he suddenly lost his gumption and disappeared from the public view?
“And how, on earth, did such a brazen and unpatriotic act by protesters waving Russian flags take the security services by surprise? It’s an indictment that some tailors somewhere in Kano made dozens of Russian flags and flooded different protest venues across the city with the flags without being questioned and, obviously, without any prior intelligence!
“How were the flags distributed unnoticed on a day when the security services were supposed to be on maximum alert? The Service Chiefs must answer these questions!
“While we condemn, in strong terms, the treasonable action of protesters in Kano waving the Russian flag, we observe with dismay that the same flag was also spotted in some suburbs of Abuja, the nation’s capital. We also strongly hold that the action is a serious indictment on the security chiefs”, the group posited.
They, therefore, called on President Tinubu, to wield the big stick and declare a state of emergency in any state or region if the political leaders of the affected area(s) are not acting decisively.
They argued that, “as the Chairman of ECOWAS, President Tinubu owes the West African sub-region the responsibility to ensure that the sub-region does not allow external forces to further derail democracy.
“Already, systematic efforts by Russia to undermine democracy in Africa have subdued democratic development in many African countries. The president should immediately nip Russia’s threat in the bud and punish its home-based enablers.
“To this end, we humbly demand immediate sack of the indolent Service Chiefs by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We also submit that those behind the treasonable action in Kano and Abuja be fished out for prosecution. Thirdly, we demand that state of emergency be imposed on the states where the treasonable action took place during the ongoing #EndbadGovernance protests”.
