Treason Charge Against Nigerian Protesters Continues Dangerous Trend

Amnesty International Nigeria, who called for the release of the arrested protesters, said, “The Nigerian authorities are escalating [a] crackdown on peaceful protesters against hunger and corruption. Over 1,000 people have been remanded nationwide. Today 441 people were arraigned in Kano, in what is set out to be an unfair trial based on trumped-up charges.”

A dangerous tradition

In the last decade, the Nigerian government has often weaponized treason charges to suppress protesters. At the height of the #EndSARS protests, outspoken activists also found their bank accounts inaccessible while others were arrested, some of them still in prison. One of such activists, Eromosele Adene, was arrested and detained without bail for more than 72 hours.

Four years later, the pattern persists, as civil protests continue to lead to arrests, with treason charges becoming alarmingly frequent. Condemning this disturbing trend, human rights activist and lawyer Femi Falana (a Senior Advocate of Nigeria) said this is the fifth treason charge he has had to defend in Nigeria.

“People are wondering why the charge of treason is being trivialized in our country. How can you say that because people protested, they are being charged with treason?” he asked.

“I found it ridiculous that the government would charge protesters for protesting, especially with heavy charges like treason. But it just shows the decline and the further shrinkage of the civic space since this current regime began,” Nneoma George, who gave an interview under the condition of using an alias, tells OkayAfrica. George, who works with the Partnership for Justice: Secretariat of the Nigerian Human Rights Defenders Network, reiterates that protests are a civil right enshrined in the Nigerian constitution and recognized by international law. “As long as it is a peaceful protest, then citizens should be allowed to carry out that right.”

The future of democracy

Africa has been experiencing a wave of civil demonstrations challenging administrations and policies that do not suit the people’s needs. In Kenya, young people spent weeks campaigning against a Finance Bill (and overall government corruption) that threatened to worsen the country’s precarious economic situation. In Angola, four activists who were detained since September 2023 and sentenced to two years and five months for “disobedience and resisting orders” had been planning a peaceful protest or criticizing the government before their arrest. The country has also recently gone further to initiate laws that Human Rights Watch says could limit the freedom of the media and stifle any demonstrations critical of the government.

The first law, known as the Bill on Crimes of Public Goods and Services imposes prison sentences of up to 25 years for any demonstration or protest that results in vandalism or service disruption.

The second law, the National Security Bill, permits security forces to cut radio broadcasts and telecommunications without a court order under exceptional circumstances. Both of these laws, which have been criticized for their vagueness and anti-protest slants, are said to have failed international human rights requirements.

The way George sees it, “If the court and the judiciary actually decide to prosecute and find protesters guilty of the trumped up charges, then we might as well say goodbye to our democracy.” George says, “Democracy is the government of the people, for the people and by the people and if the people cannot come out to peacefully air their grievances, then what really is democracy.”

George believes the government is prosecuting #EndBadGovernance protesters in an attempt to prevent another mass demonstration as powerful as #EndSARS. The way forward, she says, is for Nigerians to develop a united front, put aside the ethnic differences currently driving its people apart and continue to demand accountability from the government. “[The government knows] how powerful it is when we can put aside our differences and speak with one voice."