I set my alarm clock this morning to ensure I didn’t miss President Bola Tinubu’s eagerly awaited address to the nation regarding the current unrest. His outline of the government’s remedial actions since inception, aimed at preventing such outbreaks, will undoubtedly receive expert scrutiny for both effectiveness and content. My primary concern, predictably, is the ongoing deterioration in the state’s handling of protest management, an area where the presidential address fell notably short. This shortfall regrettably empowers security forces to act with impunity, perpetuating a cycle of resentment and reprisals.

The use of live bullets as a state response to civic protest is the core issue. Even tear gas is questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest. Hunger marches are a universal S.O.S., not unique to Nigeria. They serve as a summons to governance, indicating a breaking point has been reached and testing the government’s awareness of public desperation. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, for which notice was served, represents a regression that takes the nation back even further than the deadly culmination of the ENDSARS protests. It evokes pre-independence colonial disdain, reminiscent of Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera “BREAD AND BULLETS,” which earned him persecution and proscription by the colonial government.

The nation’s security agencies cannot claim ignorance of alternative, civilized models for security intervention. Recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of the YELLOW VEST movement in France. Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curriculum. In all the coverage I watched, not once did I see a gun leveled at protesters, much less fired, even during direct confrontations. The use of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous regression, a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, including revolutions.

It is long overdue to permanently abandon the anachronistic resort to lethal means by security agencies. No nation is so under-developed, materially impoverished, or internally insecure as to lack the will to set an example. All it takes is to recall its own history and exercise the will to commence a lasting transformation, breaking.