The legislature within a web of pandemics: Evaluating roles, actions, and missteps under a protest climate.

Africa has in the past two years witnessed a cornucopia of social inequities and human rights violations which sparked several protests and violent demonstrations. These coincided with what has been widely acknowledged as the unprecedented bane of the 21st century – the Covid-19 pandemic. For many, the rhythms of democratic and human rights violations were ‘pandemics within a pandemic’. The #stopGBV movement against gender-based violence in South Africa, the #AmharaGenocide protests against violence in Ethiopia, the #ShutItAllDown movement against gender-based violence in Namibia, the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter movement against rights abuses, and the #EndSARS movement against police brutality in Nigeria are a few examples.

As reported in these different contexts, agencies and arms of government were key targets of the protesters. However, the case of Nigeria’s #EndSARS protests punctuated both the vulnerabilities of the legislative institution to (violent) targeting by angry protesters as well as their powers to quell dissent. The academic study of parliamentary procedures has been successful in bringing to light, among other things, the constitutional requirements for public accountability, the importance of legislative independence in building public trust, and the changing trends in public engagement. Findings on inter-arm government agencies' rapid response patterns in times of emergencies are also not uncommon. However, less has been documented on what roles legislatures play during social movements, and in times of human rights emergencies. Thus, this study which draws on mixed methods, through exploratory interviews and surveys, investigates the roles of the legislature in dealing with aggression and its consequences under protest climates.