Nasarawa Women’s Right to Protest
Now that the Supreme Court has affirmed A.A. Sule as governor of Nasarawa State, there is an attempt to dish out lessons.
The protesters first cried foul immediately after the election of March 11, 2023. They knew their winner whom they voted for and poured into the streets. Women, young, old, baring their breasts, they bore down on Akwanga and Lafia, bearing their grievances. Another electoral heist had been carried out, they cried. The incumbent announced as winner could not have won.
As minutes became hours and hours days, the government panicked. At the sight of women clad in black baring their breasts and calling for justice, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) quaked in its boots. Calling them prostitutes was easy. As was dismissing them as hired harlots.
What was not easy was dismantling their allegations. Solving the riddle they posed proved a Sisyphean task.
They accused the returning officer in the polls of manipulating the polls. For them, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cleared the state until a computer scientist who is the preeminent academic cooked results in favour of the APC. The courts have since spoken, a limited umpire handing out limited verdicts. But like Rachel, the women have refused to be consoled. Their nakedness offered in protest is serving as a mirror to those stripped naked by a lack of conscience.
Thirty-eight of the women arrested for nothing more than exercising their freedom of expression and assembly were denied bail. The PDP believes A.A Sule is determined to send a message: that his administration will no longer be embarrassed by rabble-rousers. His only challenge is that the women are no ordinary troublemakers. They represent the midwives of Nigeria’s democracy. Firm, fierce and almost feral, they represent an awareness that is growing teeth.
They aren’t rioters. They have no interest in chaos. Preternaturally focused, they have their eyes on what happens in their government. Especially on who forms their government. The Court may have denied them bail, but they are used to denial. Their defiance comes from denial.
Their self-denial is coming from denial. Denied once of the sum of their votes, they no longer fear denial. They are defying denial.
Half-naked, they are showing up Nasarawa’s naked consciences. They may be poor women. Farmers. Petty traders. Housewives. But they are showing that they could not have been bought. Or silenced. Mothers, they are also ready to be martyrs. Like pregnant women, they can feel the coming of Nasarawa’s emancipation.
Like sirens, their cries for justice will corrode the confines of their prison. It is good to feel the soul of Nigeria’s Northcentral stirring. While the APC narrowly escaped in Kaduna and Nasarawa State, Plateau State proved a bridge too far.
Despite decisions draped with dubiety, the state’s rejection of the APC stood. It is ironic that the man Nasarawa blame for truncating their will came in from Plateau State. Nasarawa was carved out of Plateau State. It is ironic that it was at the instance of someone coming in from the state that its votes caved in.
The final word on the election has been said by the Supreme Court. But there are those who do not understand words. Or finality.
The protesting women do not. They know what they saw. They alone know what they feel.
Their sore sense of injustice cannot be wished away, or whisked away by questionable judicial finality. The state government has denied involvement in their ordeal. But this is as doubtful as the involvement of the police is curious.
The constitution allows people to assemble and express themselves. Inherent in this constitutional fiat is the right to protest. It is doubtful that women who only expressed dismay at a judicial verdict overstepped the mark of peaceful protest. If they did, was it grave enough to attract the police? If the police do not have better things to do than arresting and prosecuting innocent protesters – all of them women, then there should be collective alarm.
The women have served up an embarrassment welcomed by democracy. The stridency of their voices is a positive for Nigeria’s democracy.
Kene Obiezu,
