Egyptians storm the palace: Can this happen in Nigeria?

The Arab Spring is far from over, with the undying spirit of protest in Egypt, ignited by President Mohamed Morsi’s assumption of dictatorial powers and his bid to change the Egyptian constitution.

Egyptians didn’t just vent their anger at the Tahrir Square in Cairo and other cities, they decided to march to the presidential palace. Lucky Morsi was not in the palace, as news reports said he had been spirited away before most of the marchers arrived. Some of the marchers who saw him being driven out, chanted ‘coward’.

Not even the tear gas being fired by the police deterred these angry Egyptians, as they broke through the barricades at the gate of the palace and by its sides. They even cut the barbed wires. It was the police that relented as they saw the unrelenting energy of the crowd. The crowd was allowed to reach the palace walls. Later they dispersed.

The protests are the latest in a string of action opposed to Morsi’s November 22 decree, which expanded his powers and enabled him to put to a mid-December referendum a draft constitution drawn up by an Islamist-dominated panel and rejected by liberals, leftists and Christians.

Outside the palace, the demonstrators waved Egyptian flags, chanting for the regime’s

downfall and denouncing the Brotherhood for having “sold the revolution” that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak last year.

The draft constitution has become the focal point of a political and ideological battle between Islamists and the largely secular-leaning opposition.

“Egypt is a country where all religions should live together. I love God’s law and sharia (Islamic law) but I will vote against the constitution because it has split the people,” Bassam Ali Mohammed, an Islamic law professor, said as he neared the palace.

The question is: can this happen in Nigeria?