Chris Otaigbe
The Black Lives Matter protest berthed in Nigeria on Wednesday when a group of Nigerians took to the streets in Lagos in protest against the killing of an African American, George Floyd by the US Police in Minneapolis.
But the protest at the United States Consulate in Lagos has been denounced by some Nigerians who accused the organizers, Black Lives Matter Movement in Nigeria of mere grandstanding over an issue that is already receiving attention in America, while there are many pressing issues facing Nigerians at home.
Several US cities have been rocked by large-scale protests in the past one week since Floyd’s death, with the police and National Guard clashing with the protesters.
The Lagos protest was in solidarity with African Americans who have been at the receiving end of some police brutalities in recent years.
Leader of the protest, Josephine Opara, said the US must end white supremacy and build a local intervention force to tackle violence inflicted on black communities by the State Police and Vigilantes.
However, one of the issues currently burning in Nigeria is the rape and murder of Uwaila, the 22-year old 100 Level Uniben student by young Nigerians, most of whom, are at large.
Braving the rain, the Opara-led Black Lives Matter Movement in Nigeria (BLMMN) stormed the streets of Victoria Island (VI), Lagos, with other protesters.
Carrying placards with words such as “Black must Live”, “Black Lives Matter”, “I can’t breathe” and “Justice for George Floyd” the Protesters condemned the extrajudicial murder of African Americans in the United States of America.
Identifying with the ongoing mass protest in the US, the protest is a response by African Americans to the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, after Minneapolis officer, Derek Chauvin, choked the life out of the African American with one of his knee pinning his neck down for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
However, social media platforms have been abuzz with discontent among Nigerians over the protest, as they described it as opportunistic. According to them, there are more pressing issues that are deserving of such protest. Among the issues mentioned is the ongoing national outrage over the rape and murder of Uwaila in Benin and 18-year old Barakat Bello in Ibadan.
Other Nigerians who spoke to Kaftan Post said the Opara-led protest shows that some Nigerians are still suffering from colonial mentality, adding that the international value of their protest must have been the motivating factor for the organization that put the event together.
Arnold Adedeji, who works in one of the firms in Victoria Island, said he was disgusted by the gathering and felt the organizers were insensitive to the many problems going on around them in the country.
“Which George Floyd are they protesting for? We have a Uniben student who was raped and murdered in cold blood and in a church and all you can do is to organize a protest for somebody in another country! Please don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with the family of Floyd and all African Americans on the streets across the US and pray that they get justice for the murder of Floyd and all Black Americans who have suffered racially-motivated brutality and deaths by Police in America. But what I am saying is that, just as the United States of America has its own Floyd problem, so do we have an Uwa-Barakat issue we must all come out for…” Said Arnold.
Ugochukwu Ikeduru is a contractor supplying one of the foreign missions in VI and his anger for the protesters was visible, describing the Opara-led movement as a cheap way to gain global attention. “It is obvious that the organizers were trying to cash-in on the Floyd case to get cheap attention so that international media like CNN can give them publicity.
“Meanwhile, there is the issue of poverty killing Nigerians at home, Covid-19 palliatives being embezzled by some government officials, Nigerians who have lost their jobs to Covid-19 What is their response to them…? Protesting an American problem happening in America. Are they well? I doubt! I am so angry…,” he said.
A staff of a private security firm in the area, Joy Omozokpia said when she saw the protesters; she initially thought they had brought the rape and murder case of Uwa to the Consulate.
“At first, I thought they were here to protest the rape and killing of Uwa. It was when I saw what they wrote on the placards, that their mission dawned on me. Look at them, coming here to protest human right and racism…, meanwhile, the kind of racism they practice at home and work far outweigh the ones they came here to protest for another man from another country.
“The woman that led them, if you check her now, you are likely to discover that people who work for her or live with her may not have good things to say about her… let them go and protest for the lives we have lost to rape and Police brutality in Nigeria. Plenty of that for them to write on their placards, abeg!” said Joy.
In a related development, twenty-three people were arrested in London yesterday, June 2, 2020, as thousands of ‘Black Lives’ Matter protesters peacefully marched on the US Embassy in London, with hundreds more, taking to the streets of Cardiff and Manchester, to demonstrate against the killing of George Floyd.
Reverberating across Thames, this afternoon was chants of ‘I can’t breathe’ words, Floyd was heard gasping before his death.
Defying the ban on mass gatherings, the protesters converged at Trafalgar Square before making their way to the gates of Downing Street and later, south of the river towards the US Embassy.
According to the Police, three people were arrested for breaching coronavirus legislation, while two others were detained for assaulting officers. Other arrests made ranged from possession of an offensive weapon to assault on police, obstructing a public carriageway to breaches of COVID-19 legislation.
While a group of officers were seen tackling protesters on Kensington High Street, according to reports, some activists threw traffic cones at police. Onlookers reported seeing scuffles break out between police and protesters despite a mainly peaceful day of demonstrations.
Although, the protest was not limited to London, activists outside Cardiff Castle in Wales were seen holding placards which said, ‘The UK is not innocent’, and in Manchester, hundreds flocked to show their solidarity in St. Peter’s Square.
One of the notable figures in the crowd was an Antifa (anti-fascist) flag-waving Briton, among those chanting at police officers guarding the gates of Number 10.
Dozens of American cities have been set ablaze over the last week amid deadly clashes with police officers over the killing of Floyd, whose death is seen as a symbol of systemic police brutality against African-Americans.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is reported to have accused the militant left-wingers of fomenting anarchist violence during the riots in the States. Rather than douse the growing tension and violent anger in the States, his response has further worsened the crisis.
