Protesters returned to the streets of Abuja on Friday to demand an end to insecurity and economic hardship.
The crowd on Friday was much smaller than the hundreds of protesters who took to the streets on Thursday to express their grievances about the country’s cost-of-living crisis. The peaceful demonstration on Thursday turned violent after police fired tear gas at the protesters. Undeterred, many returned on Friday.
The protesters, many of them young people, voiced their frustration over the country’s economic conditions and vowed “days of rage” in demonstrations scheduled to last ten days. Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES at the MKO Abiola Stadium on Friday, one protester, Suwaiba Abdullahi, said she is “willing to sacrifice her life for the protests until the authorities listen to their pleas.” Abdullahi, who recently lost her husband in the northern part of the country and is now a nursing mother, was arrested on Thursday but remained undeterred, returning to the protests shortly after her release.
Nigerians chanting “we are hungry” marched through several cities on Thursday. Five northern states—Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Borno, and Yobe—imposed a 24-hour curfew after the protests turned violent. On Friday, a heavy police and military presence was visible around the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja, with officers guarding the expressway leading to the airport and city center. Another group of protesters gathered in Gwagwalada, temporarily blocking the Lokoja-Abuja expressway before security operatives dispersed them with tear gas, reopening the road for traffic.
Some motorists had their cars damaged along Dagiri, Wazobia Park, and SDP Junction, according to Channels TV. The protesters are calling for the reversal of the fuel price hike, restoration of affordable electricity tariffs, and reduction of import duties to previous rates. They also demand the reversal of increased tertiary education fees, full transparency and accountability in governance, public disclosure and reduction of public officials’ salaries and allowances, and the establishment of an emergency fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).