On September 4, 2025, the Nepal government threw a pebble into the sea, and the resultant effect was something they never thought would occur.

Every society has a breaking point irrespective of how calm it appears to be.

For the people of Nepal, that breaking point came in September 2025, when the government banned 26 major social media platforms (including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, 𝕏 etc)

What started as anger over government restrictions on social media quickly turned into a nationwide protest.

Frustrations which had built from corruption, lack of jobs, and political instability poured onto the streets.

The resultant effect of this frustration led to death of dozens, government offices were burnt down, homes of politicians attacked, and vital public services came to a standstill.

The prime minister stepped down, and an interim government was rushed in to calm the storm.

It was a bitter lesson that when protests boil over, it is the ordinary people who carry the scars long after the noise fades.

When Protest Shakes A Nation, Nigeria’s History

The Nepal situation is not so alien to Nigerians, who have had their fair share of protests.

There have been situations where peaceful gatherings turned tense, from the fuel subsidy protests of 2012 to the EndSARS demonstrations in 2020.

Each began with simple demands, yet within days the air was thick with anger, fear and uncertainty.

Taking a walk down memory lane, in 2012, the Occupy Nigeria protest began after the removal of fuel subsidy by the then-president, Goodluck Jonathan.

What initially started as street marches against high petrol prices quickly grew into a nationwide shutdown.

In 2020, the EndSARS demonstrations showed again how frustration can spill over. Young Nigerians demanded an end to police brutality, but within days, the streets turned into battlegrounds. The shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate became a symbol of broken trust between citizens and leaders.

Just like Nepal, each of these moments began with simple demands.

Both situations have shown that a little spark, which might be easily dismissed, can quickly spiral into a fire capable of bringing a nation to its knees.

Economic Pain As A Trigger

When a country is already on the edge, all it needs is a slight push for it to tumble into chaos and collapse into nothingness. This is the reason why, in Nigeria, the leaders must be cautious with their policies that risk pushing people further over the edge.

At the heart of most protests is hunger, sometimes not just for food, but for fairness.

In Nepal, the youths were experiencing joblessness in a struggling economy, yet they were silent and kept their heads above water, hoping for a better tomorrow. However, a move which the government never thought would break the camel’s back was the social media restrictions.

For a population already battling unemployment and rising costs of living, it felt like another wall was being built against them.

Nigeria’s story has not been different. In 2012, when fuel subsidy was removed, it wasn’t only about petrol. It meant an increment in transportation, and also a drop in the value of salaries. It also meant an increase in the price of foodstuffs, school fees and the rest. That silent frustration boiled over into mass protests.

Eight years later, during EndSARS, the anger again was not just about police brutality.

Beneath the chants lay grievances about unemployment, poor governance, and hopelessness among the youth. The cry against SARS became a cry for dignity in a country where many felt locked out of their own future.

A Warning From Home

Speaking to Naijaonpoint a former spokesman of Atiku Abubakar, Segun Sowunmi has warned that Nigeria must never allow what happened in Nepal to take root in the country.

He argued that democracy already offers Nigerians the right to complain and demand better governance, but citizens also carry the responsibility of voting, joining parties, and participating in civic activities.

He asserted that those who call for revolutions often underestimate the destruction that follows.

He said, “We are lucky that that type of nonsense has not happened in our country and should never happen in our country. All critical stakeholders must work very hard to keep it so. It is the way of the extremely desperate, irresponsible to desire that their country should be destroyed. My have meals for the level of destruction that took place in Nepal. And I pray to God Almighty. Nigeria must never experience something like that. You don’t, we don’t have. 0:48 The ability to sustain or even manage service such a thing happening in our country. One of the reasons is that our population is very large and very diverse.

“We do not have any, we don’t have too many centers that unite us. Beyond religion. And unfortunately, we have in the last couple of decades. Those who have been marrying our country have been very careless with managing diversity and even itching and allowing the narrative of divisive tribal hatred to continue. Certainly, to not be in our interest. Yes, democracy gives people the right to complain about how they are being served in government. And sometimes there are expectations, how they want it to be met almost immediately. But with democracy also comes with responsibility. A citizenry that does not turn up to vote for election has not done its civic responsibility and therefore cannot be complaining. Perhaps the votes required to bring the person you think can walk into government is that vote you denied us by not showing up, by not coming up, by not getting involved, by not advocating, by not joining political parties, by not presenting yourself. It has always been my belief that those who call for revolution should be consumed by that which they call for. I always prefer what you call a microevolution. A microevolution is a process where everybody starts to change from themselves. And when you change from yourself, then you change your friends and relatives, then you change your family, then you change your community, then the society will change. The people who just play with the imagination of excessive freedom. To overheat, to discrimination all over the place, is, is, is, it’s not supposed to be allowed here

“And I think it’s a failure of those who are managing to give the assets to allow the country to be inched. As stimulated as it were, I see people are calling for a meltdown. There’s no justification for that now, and there’s no justice for that future. The economic parameters of our country, yes, reflect that we could do with some retweaking, but some of the retweaking going on now will work if people well, they are governors and their local governments are more accountable. Land does not decide in the hands of the federal government. It decides in the state and local government, and it is their duty to make sure that they can plan sustainable development for their people. We have not run a process of having governors in the country so that governors can be on holidays. It is the duty of the governor to think about everything around the state and get some collaboration and help with the federal government, which from what I can see they are willing to do. Therefore, anybody who’s asking for Nepal in Nigeria should be shot or if they cannot shoot the person, they should just arrest him and jail immediately before he puts not just Nigeria in trouble, but the whole of the subregion in trouble.

“The elections and democracy is the route by which we can do if you want a change of government or if you want to vote or what you want to be voted for. It is madness of of parallel proportion for critical stakeholders to be into society in the direction of the meltdown. My heart goes to Nepal, and I pray that Nepal ever happens here. The areas where you had the Arab Spring, are they able to recover, or did you not know what some of those areas were before the meltdown of their environment. So the God and those who have granted us the nation called Nigeria the absolute sore we prevent our country from getting to such an ugly state and we control and empathize with the people of Nepal, and I advocate that they should take it with themselves and stop destroying properties that they will take forever to build.”