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There seems to be an orchestration to coat President Bola Tinubu’s administration with bad tar but he seems comfortable with it.
Granted, the President’s handling of issues since he came into office has stolen the shine off most Nigerians, beginning with the abrupt abrogation of the fuel subsidy regime.
That is the genesis of the entire tumble downhill, worsened by the nebulous naira policy, which has resulted in its free fall. The temporary cosmetic measure to shore up the country’s currency proved to be a scam because it was not backed by corresponding productive endeavours. So, the reprieve never worked because it couldn’t.
Many will frown at me if I say that the President means well. Indeed, he does but it is obvious that the aides he surrounded himself with are either inept or doing everything to do him in.
Take the recent #EndBadGovernance protests as an example. It was the mismanagement of the protests that led to the violence and bloodshed recorded.
There was nothing wrong with organising a protest, especially in a democracy. The president admitted this much and confessed to participating in some before, even daring the jackboots of the late General Sani Abacha’s junta.
Of course, it was feared that hoodlums could hijack the protests and cause mayhem. That was partially what happened but it was not because the protesters instigated any. So, who were these hoodlums, and who brought them?
Some of the President’s aides were to blame. Firstly, they were uncouth, foul-mouthed, intemperate and draconian. Some of them deployed gutter language in their bigoted accusation of those they erroneously labeled sponsors of the protests. Besides that, they rented counter-protesters, who further complicated the matter when they were seen on camera validating the protesters’ grievances.
The complaints were genuine though they were mostly inherited. Nobody should pity Tinubu though because when he claimed it was his turn and proclaimed his famous “power is not given ala carte, snatch it and run” philosophy, it was also invariably his turn to free us from the dilapidation of the Muhammadu Buhari era. He could also not be easily divorced from that limp administration because he midwifed it.
Nevertheless, it is not all about Tinubu. Even if Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi, there would not have been much difference apart from, perhaps, the style, as we all agree that Buhari ran the country aground and got the ship of state stuck in one deep hole in a lonely wilderness.
However, violence and vandalism by whatever guise and the call for military rule as well as waving foreign flags can never be justified. It must be roundly condemned and the government must deal with those found culpable, whether as sponsors or participants.
Unfortunately, while we are yet to overcome the trauma of the recent protests, it is a wonder that government agents are not tired of fomenting trouble. How else would one explain the raid on the Labour House by unnamed security operatives? The Labour House belongs to the Nigerian Labour Congress.
Curiously, as the Department of State Security (DSS) denied involvement, the police also toed a similar line but, ironically, hastily added that the action had nothing to do with the labour union.
In a statement, it faulted the allegation that the NLC facility was raided, describing it as false. It clarified that they went there in search of “a prime criminal suspect in an ongoing investigation” without giving further details. Interesting!
The veracity of the police claim is not certain yet since no arrest was reported but coming from the police, which has been economical with the truth of late, it is doubtful.
It may be recalled that Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police, had also denied that security agencies shot live bullets at #EndBadGovernance protesters.
According to him: “From our record, there were no shooting incidents by the police…The police or military did not use any live ammunition in the management of these protests. Instead, we have had cases where our officers were injured and are in critical condition.” Haba!
However, a more amenable Nigerian Army owned up to the violence meted out to protesters and admitted the shooting to death of a teenage protester in Kaduna. It visited the family of the 16-year-old victim and gave the family a miserable N300,000 ‘compensation’.
Moreover, the unprovoked attacks on unarmed and peaceful protesters, who were shut out of court-imposed venues were recorded on videos trending online.
Going to fish for trouble in the Labour House even while the last has not been heard on the #EndBadGovernance protest is thoughtless and provocative and an attempt to expand the crisis.
The organised labour had just struck a deal with the Tinubu government on the N70,000 National Minimum Wage, albeit reluctantly. They had come all the way down from their lofty demand to accept the President’s lean offer, which cannot even buy a bag of rice, for peace’s sake. Yet some agency wants to inflame bottled-up anger and stir battle and set the stage for another upheaval in the polity. One hopes the NLC would overcome this temptation.
It is time the President looked deeply into his appointees, who even shamelessly countermand one another.
The democratic credentials of Mr. President are not in doubt. He paid his dues and was even incarcerated and exiled at some point due to his unbending stance on democracy.
He should be grateful that, of all the NADECO members in the trenches with him, he is among the few who survived and reaped the dividends of the democracy they fought for.
Therefore, the Jagaban must not allow anybody to portray him as undemocratic, which he is not. He should rein in overzealous aides and not allow them to tarnish his name.
Targeting unarmed protesters with violence meant for terrorists is unacceptable. Even telling the country lies while evidence of shooting and tear-gassing protesters abound everywhere is insulting to our collective psyche.
President Tinubu must issue marching orders to his aides to sit up, stop working at cross purposes, or be booted out.
The security agencies must unmask sponsors of violence and reveal their names. It is not enough to serve us cockeyed tales by moonlight, claiming to have identified the sponsors of protesters and terrorism and frozen their bank accounts.
We have heard enough of such faulty strategies. Nigerians have become smarter and can no longer allow anybody to pull the wool over their eyes.
If you are not ready to put faces to the identified suspects yet, probably because the investigation is ongoing, what is the rationale for revealing your strategies and allowing them to escape?
Also, people are afraid to release information to the security agents because of justifiable fear of turning the table against them.
By the way, is it not strange that the former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, is still missing without clues and has effectively evaded arrest? There must be a compromise somewhere or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, doesn’t want to do its work or collaborate with other agencies to fish him out due to noticeable inter-agency rivalry. That is by the way.
Nevertheless, the security operatives must also be commended when they excel in their arduous and hazardous assignment.
That government aide that advised the government on the aborted proposal to sell a bag of 50kg rice to civil servants at N40,000 did not mean well. Surprisingly, the government fell for the bait before realising and cancelling it. If the people buy the rice for N40,000, won’t it finish; after that what next?
To guarantee food security, the government should rather ensure that Nigerian farmers are technologically equipped, and protected to return to their farms by securing those places. As long as the government allows bandits and terrorists to roam freely and maul farmers unrestrained, the longer they will avoid the farms and the higher the cost of food.
