As Nigerians continue on the 5th day to protest hunger and general economic deprivation across the country, protesters across states in northern Nigeria are seen waving Russian flags on the streets.
Protesters in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, and Zamfara all in the northwestern Nigeria plus Bauchi in the Northeast have trooped to the streets waving Russian flags with many people chanting support for President Putin.
WikkiTimes reports that on August 1st protests turned violent in Kano and most of the states in northern Nigeria which led to imposition of 24-hour curfews in Kano, Jigawa, Borno and Yobe.
President Bola Tinubu, in an address to the nation on the fourth day of the protest, appealed to the protesters to embrace dialogue and put a halt to hitting the streets.
He accused his political adversaries to promote what he called an unconstitutional agenda.
WikkiTimes observes that in Kano, the largest city and commercial center in northern Nigeria, where the waving of Russian flags started since August 2nd police arrested dozens of protesters with the Russian flags in Sharada area.
In Katsina police dispersed scores of protesters who were raising Russian flags on the streets of the state capital on Monday.
In Gusau, the capital of bandit-ravaged Zamfara state, hundreds of protesters were chanting name of President Putin and raising Russian flags.
A Gusau-based journalist, who prefers anonymity, told WikkiTimes that youths all over the state capital are marching the street with Russian flags.
Another Gusau resident, Bilyamin Badarawa, explained that “it is not peaceful protest now. It has turned to crisis right away. Not even Russian alone, including Iranian flags. The protest has turned to something else.”
In the northeastern state of Bauchi, protesters also raised the flags of the Russian federation as they marched into the streets on Monday afternoon.
Northern Nigeria has been engulfed in insecurity over the last decade where nonstate actors are terrorizing communities and taking control of some territories.
Similarly, the northwestern region shares extensive boundary with the Niger Republic where the military junta usurped power in 2023.
The Niger military power had severed the country’s agelong ties to its former colonial master, France and other western allies including the United States and tilted towards Russia.
Russia through its Wagner group, a private military company, has been exerting its presence in Africa cooperating with military governments in the Sahel precisely Mali and Burkina Faso and elsewhere.
