Police in Nigeria have used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the capital, Abuja, and the northern city of Kano as thousands of people in cities across the country joined rallies to protest the high cost of living.
The country is struggling with soaring inflation and a sharply devalued naira after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ended a costly fuel subsidy and liberalised the currency more than a year ago to improve the economy.
Tagged #EndbadGovernanceinNigeria, the protest movement won support with an online campaign, but officials had warned against attempts to copy recent violent demonstrations in Kenya, where protesters forced the government to abandon new taxes.
Many Nigerians are struggling with high costs – food inflation is at 40 percent and fuel is triple the price from a year ago – but others were also wary about insecurity around protests.
In Kano, the country’s second-largest city, protesters set fire to tyres outside the state governor’s office and police responded with tear gas, forcing most of the demonstrators back, according to AFP news agency.
“We are hungry – even the police are hungry, the army are hungry,” said factory worker Jite Omoze, 38. “I have two children and a wife but I can’t feed them anymore,” he added, calling for the government to reduce fuel prices.
Protesters later torched and ransacked a digital centre of the Nigeria Communications Commission near the governor’s office and police fired shots in the air to disperse them.
Police reported pockets of looting and arson in the city and arrested 13 people.
In Abuja, security forces blocked off roads leading to Eagle Square – one of the planned protest sites – and fired tear gas and set up barbed wire fencing to prevent several hundred protesters from reaching the park.
Security forces also fired tear gas to disperse crowds in Mararaba on the outskirts of the capital, AFP reported.
Some 1,000 people marched peacefully in the mainland area of the economic capital Lagos, where they chanted “Tinubu Ole”, calling the president the Yoruba language word for “thief”.
Local media reported hundreds of protesters came out in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, Bauchi state, and several other states across the country.
“Hunger has brought me out to protest,” said 24-year-old demonstrator Asamau Peace Adams outside the National Stadium in Abuja before tear gas was fired. “It’s all down to bad governance.”