Quite a number of interesting events have continued to unfold in Nigeria’s political scene: The Nigerian Senate President, Bukola Saraki, is under fire for a series of allegations, including money laundering; the national budget is yet to be approved/signed by the president, consequently this has slowed down a lot of socio-economic activities but not the delivery of over 100 exotic jeeps for the country’s lawmakers, and Nigerians, particularly the youth are not happy about it all.

Today, scores of young Nigerians have embarked on the #OccupyNASS protest, with a list of demands that must be met, otherwise, activities in the National Assembly will remain paralysed having already shut the gates to the premises. They are demanding the immediate resignation of Senator Saraki, the revision and modification of the 2016 budget and for the senators to return their new cars.

The protest, which highlights issues of corruption, culminated in a two-kilometre march from the central area of the city to the National Assembly with young people from various civil society organisations and university students. They forced the closure of the main gate and prevented people from going in or out of the premises, promising to seal off the federal parliament for three days until their demands are met.

Although it is refreshing that the youth of this country are taking a bold move to make their voices heard, one wonders for how long they will stay committed to this course. Will this protest advance into something more like the 2012 #OccupyNigeria protest and yield results, no matter how small, like it did with black students in the US and in South Africa’s #FeesMustFall, or will it be yet another futile protest as is typical of most protests in Nigeria. In the last couple of years, there have been several protests against the Nigerian National Assembly including #OpenNASS, #OurNASS, and #UndressNASS on social media, which was over alleged $43 million ‘wardrobe allowance’ for lawmakers, but it remained mainly a conversation on social media and yielded nothing.

In what appears to be their first battle towards change, will Nigerian youth stick to their guns this time, until change is manifested or tire and bow out, if not ‘bribed-out’ at the end of the day?

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