Tear gas used on Nigerian protestors

Police have arrested dozens of protesters, including Nobel laureate author Wole Soyinka, after firing tear gas during an anti-government protest today in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Soyinka, an outspoken opponent of previous military regimes, is also a vocal critic of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s civilian government, describing Nigeria as an anarchic state in which normal government functions have been upended.

The writer was among 500 demonstrators at a protest in central Lagos organised by human rights and other civic groups calling for the government’s resignation.

Police fired tear gas to break up the demonstrators – some waving signs declaring “Obasanjo is a civilian dictator” – after 15 minutes, arresting dozens including Soyinka, and bundling them into police vans.

“We’re tired of Obasanjo,” said demonstrator Wale Odejo. He accused Nigeria’s leader of presiding over an escalation of violence and poverty in Africa’s most populous nation.

Authorities announced a ban on public demonstrations earlier this month following a reported “breach of security” that some army officials termed a plot to overthrow Obasanjo, whose election in 1999 ended 15 years of military rule.

Soyinka, 69, won the 1986 Nobel prize for literature for his autobiographical books, poems and plays depicting the brutality and chaos of life under military rule.

President Obasanjo won re-election last April in a ballot dismissed by his main opponent, former military leader Muhammadu Buhari, as rigged.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in ethnic and religious violence since 1999, including hundreds in recent weeks.