By Dr Emmanuel Ulayi
Bookmakers would by now have concluded that the hunger induced protest which started on the first day of August would not hold after all. This is going by the frenzied efforts and subterfuge moves President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had adopted to ensure that the protest would not only fail but would not see the light of day. An onlooker of the Nigerian protest environment vis a vis the prevailing economic hardship and hunger in the land would be forced to misconstrue the agitation of Nigerian youths as a figment of their imagination or a self contrived gambit to wrestle power out of President Tinubu.
President Tinubu is perceived as the master protest strategist having played major roles in almost all the major protest against sitting governments in the country. Pundits were already reeling out permutations that since Tinubu was now the arrow head of this government thereby placing him at the receiving end of the protest, a protest march may never fly. How wrong they were, however. Close watchers could see that the present protest is provoked by hunger and the warped economic policies of this government. There is little or no political motive behind it. Nearly everybody including All Progressives Congress APC members are hungry and feeling the pain of the awkward economic policies of the government.
The Tinubu government made a total mess of the disastrous economy of Nigeria which former President Muhammadu Buhari left behind when he was exiting office. Tinubu actually piqued the angst of Nigerians when he announced that he was going to continue from where Buhari stopped. Nigerians were too shocked to react to that announcement and perhaps waited to find out what he meant seeing that Buhari did not make any progress, he merely retrogressed the country.
Again, during his inaugural speech, he announced to whoever cared to listen that fuel subsidy was gone for good. With that speech he left Nigerians without an iota of doubt that his government would plunge the country into untold hardship and would have risen up against him for that suicidal statement but not understanding the full import and ramifications of the statement they held their peace. The boomerangs effect did not wait a second. Almost immediately the country’s economy experienced a heart and mental failure. The cost of living instantly hit the roof while the standard of living did a nose dive. Nigerians realized that dooms day was nearer than they thought.
Tinubu’s actions and body language showed clearly that his economic policies made a total wreck of whatever former president Muhammed Buhari left of the country’s ruined economy. From the first day of his inauguration, Tinubu hit the ground running leaving no one in doubt of his direction. What with policies that were aimed at not only putting the final nail to the coffin of the country’s chequered economy but sending the country to the rubbish bin of history where other failed countries have found themselves.
Good at brinkmanship for the wrong motives, President Tinubu and his handlers have been going about using coercion and other machivellian tactics to ensure that the planned youth protest did not come to pass or at best fails. The government has wooed all the governor’s of various states including of the opposition party states and convinced or cajoled them into disassociating themselves with the protest and getting critical groups of their respective states to also toe that line.
And so, monies have been alleged to have changed hands as part of strategies to ensure that certain stakeholders did not associate with the protest. Groups such as the National Association of Nigerian Students NANS, Christian and Muslim bodies, particularly at state levels have held press conferences to state categorically that they would not have anything to do with the protest. The bodies also painted the Tinubu government in flowering colour leaving Nigerians confused if the were referring to the same person.
Niger State Governor, Umaru Bago was quick to boast to the whole world that the youths of his state were peace loving and so, would shun the protest. He forgot that the state has the unenviable record of being the only state whose youth kicked -started the hunger protest. They took to the streets of a major roundabouts in the state capital to protest over hunger at a time when the organisers of the present planned youth protest had not even conceived the idea of a protest. Of course, it would be apt to disclose that the same youths, this time around in Suleja and Abuja-Kaduna Expressway registered their protest readiness by taking to the streets to protest the biting hunger and hardship.
All of these groups and bodies are preaching the same message of anti protest saying that the government of the day was actually spending sleepless nights to put the country’s economy on track. They were also preaching the gospel of not participating in the protest. This is apart from preparing the machinery of State force to clampdown on any attempt at engaging in the protest.
Suddenly the singsong in the Nigerian space is that protest is not the way to go as nothing good can come out of any protest. leaving everyone with the impression that Nigerians have suddenly forgotten the history of protest and its effectiveness in compelling governments to jettison unfriendly and anti- people policies. They have even forgotten that one of the most recent protests was spare headed by President Tinubu himself.
It has become obvious that all his agitations over the years was aimed at one singular goal to wrestle power for himself and his Lagos boys. This explains why he announced during the 2023 political primaries elections that it was his turn to rule the country. He said it as if he was taking turn with friends at some frivolous item. He did not sound like he understood what leadership of a country entailed. It was obvious that he did not prepare himself for the onerous task of leading a country like Nigeria. He was instrumental at foisting Buhari on Nigeria and so when Buhari was running the country aground with his tribalistic and nepotistic style of governance which eventually landed the Nigerian economy into ruination, Tinubu never lifted up a finger or voice to condemn his actions.
Nigeria became like a toy in the hands of infants poised to destroy the toy. That explains why Tinubu announced to the world that he would continue from where Buhari stopped. Without mincing words. Tinubu has further ruined Nigeria at such a record time than Buhari could have ever imagined. Under one year of his coming to office. The Naira exchange with the dollar which is the most common indices of economic growth, has done more than a quadruple plunge and also skyrocketing the cost of living for a people Buhari had ruined.
That thoughtless act of removal of the fuel subsidy and floating the naira is the most tactless policy any descending person could have attempted. Those policies have finished completely the Nigerian economy which Buhari destroyed. Tinubu added salt to injury when he started off running an extravagant government, spending recklessly when the economy was seriously hemorrhaging; and setting up an over bloated cabinet.
The Nigerian masses thought that with the clueless, rudderless government that Buhari ran which drove the country into becoming the poverty capital of the world they had seen the worst of bad leadership, they never expected what hit them with the Tinubu government. Ironically, a section of the country, the northern region, did not display the type of bitterness they have exhibited as a result of Tinubu’s failure during Buhari’s colossal failure. Watchers of the Nigerian State aver that it was because Buhari was their kith and kin and they were primarily instrumental to bringing him into power.
The North was the worse off region during the Buhari era and they remain the most negatively affected under the Tinubu one year government. It is obvious that they have taken the #Endbadgovernance protest personally and causing a rain of thunder and brimstone. The North is certainly feeling the heat of the two successive bad governments and it appears that they cannot take the pressure anymore. So far more than a score youths from the north may have lost their lives from this protest and many more may go down going by the report of the continuing protest.
It has become certain that the Tinubu government has no solution to the economic hardship the country is presently facing. During his “stop protest speech” on Sunday he was busy reeling out only temporary measures to cushion the impact of the hardship. It was obvious that he did not know what a government should do to bring a last economic succour to the people. He was talking about palliatives and wage award as if the palliative or wage award will get to every deprived person in the country.
Majority of the populace are unemployed while a large percentage lived below the minimum wage when it was still N30,000. There are still many others who work but are not paid anything. They work but depend on handout for their sustainance. From the attitude to governance it is clear that Nigeria is cursed with the worst species of politicians. The average Nigerian politicians does not have the interest of the populace at heart. They consider themselves first before even giving a thought to the people’s welfare. Unfortunately, the populace behave like sheep without a shepherd allowing anyone including a hierling to shepherd them.
When President Tinubu wrestled the presidency of the country in a highly questionable election, Nigerians were willing to take the chance and give him the benefits of the doubts, having just come out of a Buhari administration. They were willing to accept him even though less than a quarter of Nigerians participated in that election. When he announced that he would continue from where Buhari stopped Tinubu suffered the loss of a huge portion of his goodwill from Nigerians.
He eventually lost every good will when he announced that fuel subsidy was gone for good. Apart from his sycophants and bootlickers who surrounded the corridors of power, every other person, including his party faithful saw that policy as the last straw that breaks the carmel’s back. Life suddenly became unbearably hard. Worse hit in the boomerangs effect was food items in the market and transportation. The man lacking any idea to redress the disaster he unleashed on Nigerians sought measures in palliatives. All palliative measures have failed so far. Truth is that the purchasing power of Nigerians cannot measure with the speed at which the cost of living was spiralling.
Uptil this moment, President Tinubu is lost at what he and his handlers, better known as the Lagos boys, have roped themselves and by extension, Nigerians into, due to his unbridled ambition to rule Nigeria “Emilokan”. His ego and arrogance is making it impossible for him to retrace his steps and reintroduce the subsidy on fuel as well as other economic policies which have plunged the country into this boiling cauldron. The country’s debt profile continues to rise though he is living in the fallacy that the debt is being offset.
. Ulayi writes from Abuja
