A human rights lawyer and political activist, Dele Farotimi has faulted the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and the judiciary over their roles in restricting citizens from holding peaceful protests.
Farotimi’s remark follows a protest led by the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, #FreeNnamdiKanuNow on Monday in Abuja, despite a court order and police warning stopping the protest.
While Speaking on Tuesday, Farotimi described the actions as evidence that Nigeria is merely pretending to be a democracy.
Farotimi said that in a true democracy, citizens do not require a police permit to protest, adding that the police are only to be informed so they can provide security.
He argued that it is completely unheard of for citizens in a democracy to need the permission of their paid employees, the police, before they can congregate peacefully.
The activist said citizens who protest peacefully should not be criminalised, emphasising that only violent offenders should face arrest.
Farotimi added that he no longer joins protests because he believes the Nigerian state is “deaf” to the cries of its citizens.
He said, “In a democracy, there should never be a need for a police permit before you may have a protest. The police were informed so that they would provide security.
“That a court would presume to curtail the right of citizens to protest peacefully in a democracy is even suggestive of the fact that we’re not in a democracy. We’re only mimicking and pretending to be in one.
“I’m sorry to say our judiciary is unfit for purpose. It does exactly as it is told by the executive and does not serve the cause of justice. An order is only as useful as its lawfulness.
“I have been the victim of a court case that trailed me and remanded me on a non-existent law. So what kind of court order is going to stop citizens who are not out for violence from peacefully showing their displeasure with the government?
“Why I don’t join protests is because I know they are merely protesting to the deaf. How do you tell the deaf you don’t like what is being done to you? The Nigerian state is deaf; it does not listen.
“When you talk about protest, the expectation is that the person to whom you are protesting has the capacity to hear you and recalibrate. It has never happened that the Nigerian state recalibrated and did the right thing.”
