Intended and unintended consequences of the right to protest

“One of the great things about our democracy is it expresses itself in all sorts of ways. And that includes people protesting. I’ve been the subject of protests during the course of my eight years and I suspect that there’s not a president in our history that at some point hasn’t been subject to these protests.” —Barack Obama

A striking hallmark of a civilised and functioning democracy, is the freedom of citizens, workers and ordinary people, to seek to enhance their lives directly and indirectly, and the lives of those around them, by engaging in lawful and peaceful protests. This assertion is established statutorily via section 39 and 40 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended), which respectively upholds the right to freedom of expression; and the right to assembly freely and associate with other persons for the protection of his interests.

Jurisprudentially, no right is absolute nor limitless. Accordingly, the provisions of sections 39 and 49 of the Constitution are circumscribed by section 14 (1) (b) supra. It establishes that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” In other words, the right to freedom of expression, to protest and to freedom of association for the advancement of one’s interests, does not overreach the constitutional obligation of the government to establish and preserve law and order.

A protest is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary). The contextual basis of a protest is variable. It could be directed against; a domestic or foreign government, an economic or political ideology, discriminatory practices, corruption, financial profligacy, labour conditions, insensitive and oppressive leadership styles, socio-economic circumstances etcetera.

Thus, the interdependent nexus of all protests is a desire to alter the status quo for what is objectively, reasonably, and widely considered as better. The aspiration of protesters to alter this status quo, invariably leads to three outcomes: one, a fulsome resolution between the parties, for example, protesters and government, workers’ unions and employers; two, negotiation, where there are gains and losses on both sides albeit a pragmatic result; and three, where a fulsome resolution and negotiation are unattainable because of irreconcilably divergent positions, the corollary is conflict narrowly and widely defined.

History is replete with examples of protests with the purposive aims of extremely radical and revolutionary change on the one spectrum, and of incremental change in the political context, on the other spectrum. The 1789 French Revolution, as the name suggests, exemplifies the revolutionary spectrum of protests; leading to regime and social change, its intended outcome!

The trigger was socio-economic and political unrest in France, which Louis XVI’s Ancien Régime, was unable to manage. The revolution lasted for a decade until 1799, whilst the intervening period witnessed, inter alia, the 1793 guillotining of Louis XVI, and his consort, Marie Antoinette; derided as Madame Déficit, because of her extravagant lifestyle and resistance to social and financial reforms.

It also witnessed the abolition of feudalism and the French monarchy on September 21, 1792, thus berthing the French First Republic; the declaration of the rights of man: liberty, equality, popular sovereignty, resistance to oppression. These principles still underpin 21st Century progressive democratic and libertarian orthodoxies around the world.

In the early 20th Century, extreme dissatisfaction with colonial complacency berthed the 1929 Aba Women’s Riots in South Eastern Nigeria. Essentially, thousands of women across the Niger Delta, comprising Andoni, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw and Ogoni ethnic nationalities, protested against British colonialists’ imposition of warrant chiefs, excessive taxation and sought to reform the native court system.

The colonialists reacted with extremely lethal force culminating in the deaths of over 50 persons. The aftermath was the appointment of women to native courts. And, today, a memorial tombstone stands in enduring tribute to these heroic women freedom fighters of pre-Independence Nigeria, at Ikot Abasi, Akwa Abasis Ibom State of Nigeria.

In more recent history, popular revolt against his oppressive leadership style, economic violations and high cost of living, triggered the departure of Blaise Campaoré, who ruled Burkina Faso through 1987 and 2014, and who was directly implicated in the murder of his predecessor, Captain Thomas Sankara (1949-1987)! The intended consequence of the protest there was regime change and that was ultimately accomplished.

The 2010 -2020 decade witnessed repeated anti-government protests, armed revolts, uprisings, across the Arab world, in what’s been concurrently characterised by the dramatis personae as Al-mara, al-arabi (Arab bitterness); and, by Western analysts, as the Arab spring. The protests extended from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Jordan, to Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Tunisia. It also stretched to Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine and Yemen.

The root causes defied homogeneity given the inimitable dynamics of each affected country, although recurring themes appertained to corruption, dictatorship, economic hardship and profligacy. The Tunisian dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, was toppled in 2011 and fled to Saudi Arabia, where he eventually died in exile in 2019.

Muammar Gaddafi, never forgiven by Western powers especially for Libya’s role in the 1988 Lockerbie Pan Am bombing, which claimed all 259 lives on board; and who ruled Libya for 42 years, was cornered by opposition fighters, and brutally murdered in 2011. Egyptian leader, Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 30 years from 1981, (following the assassination of Anwar Sadat), until 2011, when he departed following a major uprising against his despotic regime.

The October 20, 2020 riots in Lagos, Nigeria, were triggered by allegations of police brutality by the #EndSARS “Special Anti-Robbery Squad” social coalition. According to SBM Intelligence, several lives were lost around Nigeria on October 20, 2020; and on July 10, 2024, the ECOWAS Court of Justice established that the Nigerian government was guilty of human rights abuses for their actions during the #End SARs protests at Lekki toll gate in October 2020.

That Court found the government breached several international human rights standards, including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. It ordered the government to compensate each victim in the suit to the tune of N10 million each. And through August 1 and August 10, 2024, there were national protests in Nigeria, ignited by spiralling inflation, cost of living crisis and the withdrawal of fuel subsidies. More recently in Bangladesh, following extensive civil unrest, the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, on August 5, 2024, resigned and fled to India.

Several points are gleaned from the foregoing historical trajectories. First, the right to protest is constitutional. Second, the right to protest may, or may not result in regime change, and the outcome may be impossible to predict. Third, citizens’ right to protest does not extinguish the rights of non-protesters to peace and to the pursuit of their legitimate activities and business.

Fourth, accountability as a fundamental principle of the social contract dynamic, between persons, citizens and political leaders, citizens and law enforcement, employers and employees, et al, is here to stay. Fifth, demonstrably good governance, effective leadership, justice, sensitivity, prudence, are plainly non-negotiable.

Finally, in an age of AI, rapid technological innovation and ubiquitous social media, there is intense scrutiny and real-time recording of protests, protesters, police, policing all around the world. The May 2020 murder case of George Floyd, the unarmed African-American arrested by Minneapolis police department officers, captured on camera eloquently reinforces the point.

Officer, Derek Chauvin, was recorded as kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, despite Floyd complaining, of his inability to breathe, whilst three other officers looked on and prevented passers-by from intervening to assist. Chauvin and the other three officers involved were subsequently arrested.

Chauvin was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and subsequently sentenced to 22 years and six months in prison; whilst the other officers were convicted with reduced sentences to reflect their degree of culpability. And the inference emanating from Barack Obama’s observation above is that protests are part and parcel of the democratic governance.

The incontestable imperative therefore, centres on demonstrably effective leadership at all levels, fiscal discipline, sound judgment, emotional intelligence, sensitivity and respect for human rights. These are necessary, albeit insufficient, ingredients to minimise the adverse impacts of the unintended consequences of protests. The 1789 French Revolution, supra, reaffirms that hypothesis.

Ojumu is the Principal Partner at Balliol Myers LP, a firm of legal practitioners and strategy consultants in Lagos, Nigeria, and the author of The Dynamic Intersections of Economics, Foreign Relations, Jurisprudence and National Development.