IF there’s one battle any leader, any President cannot win, it’s the fight against time. On President Bola Tinubu, that time is running short. And this is why: every President is always given a privilege of a honeymoon. It’s a period of popularity enjoyed by a new government, or a new occupant of a post. It’s an ideal time when a president typically enjoys elevated approval rating before his approval rating begins to fail unless he makes better things happen, or prevent worse things from happening. For Presidents, it’s the first 100 days in office. But in the case of Tinubu, the honeymoon ended and his approval rating began to fall from Day one – that very moment, by brainwave and spur of the moment, when he announced, “fuel subsidy is gone”. His close aides say that punchline was not part of his prepared inaugural speech.
From that very day – May 29, 2023, darkness descended on Nigeria under Tinubu’s watch. Nigeria has not been the same again. No silver lining. Everything has gone out joints. Anger, disillusionment have supplanted hope. One year has passed, no hope renewed. Could it be that the President is still battling some ‘spiritual forces’, to borrow the words of the pioneer National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief Bisi Akande? We shall come back to Akande’s claims later, but suffice it to say that anger, frustration and pessimism have reached unprecedented levels like lightning rod in the air. The main complaint now, among other things, is the worsening hunger across the country due to high cost food items.
Only a leader who is callous or deaf to inner hearing will not hear the spawning fear that civil unrest is imminent in Nigeria. Prices of basic food items and medicines have increased by over 200 percent in the last one year. Nigeria is now in a pressure cooker. The pain, the anguish, the hardship are everywhere. Even those who harvest in times of crises are complaining. Isn’t it surprising that of all places, it was in the Senate that the voices of imminent nationwide protests began last Tuesday over food crisis in the country. Senator after senator, including the Senate President Godswill Akpabio (of all persons), stood up to be counted. In unison, they warned of looming protests and demonstrations by Nigerians, except the Tinubu government moves urgently to address the acute food crisis.
The matter before the Senate followed a motion tagged, “Urgent need to address food insecurity and market exploitation of consumables in Nigeria”. It was sponsored by Sen. Mohammed Ali Ndume(APC Borno South) and Sen. Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West).
Immediate past Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who hardly speaks these days, found his voice as well. “Our people are facing real hunger”, he said in an emotion-laden voice, stressing that, “the patience and tolerance of Nigerians are elastic, but not eternal”. Lawan said he saw “people, common people, suffering, struggling for food and eating once a day”. Sen. Idris Wadada from Nasarawa state, was almost in tears when he said, “Nigerians are very patient, but people cannot be that much patient under hunger”. He argued forcefully, “as much as we are much aware of the factors responsible, we should as well make recommendations to the government of the day”.
A week earlier, eminent lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba had warned that food riots are looming if the government fails to act swiftly. Will the government of the day listen or take any recommendation presented to it? Won’t this government lay the blame on the doorsteps of opposition politicians? Every government begins to run aground when it exhibits ‘too-big-to fall’ mentality and outright lies. Recall that in February, Minister of Agriculture and Food security, Abubukar Kyari said bluntly that there was “no food shortage” in the country. Recounting this government’s ledger of failures is not to brag or criticize unduly. The evidence is all over the place – North, South, East and West. Truth is, for many families, to eat a good meal a day these days is like ‘war’, let alone three square meals. Exactly a year ago, 32- year old Ebitimi Freedom was lynched to death along Tombia-Ammasoma road in Bayelsa state for allegedly stealing a loaf of bread. His plea that hunger drove him to steal could not save his life. In Feb this year, a group of angry women in Minna, Niger state, blocked the busy Minna-Bida road at the popular Kpakungu Roundabout. They cried out that their children were dying of hunger. Similar reports abound in many states. Across the country, take a look at the faces of people. It’s as if they are carved out from stones. It’s a grim picture of how Nigerians are struggling to survive these days. Hunger is spreading like wildfire, forcing many to resort to begging for alms. Hunger and insecurity have combined to squeeze Nigerians to a corner. Some are wishing that death should come because the suffering is becoming increasingly difficult to bear.
One is not unaware that years of neglect of the agricultural sector, insecurity, climate change, exchange rate crisis and over-reliance on imported food items may have impacted negatively on food production, the real present danger is inept policies of government of the day, and its failure to admit that mistakes have been made, and there’s urgent need to correct them. Recently, the government claimed there were enough foods in the grain reserves, and that the grains would be released to state governments. But it was all lies, as evidence showed that the silos are indeed empty. And you ask: how low can a government go in fudging facts and deceiving the people? Last year, a joint report by the World Food Programme(WFP), and the Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO) revealed that over 24.8 million Nigerians would be at risk of acute food shortage between June and August, 2023, including 1.1 million people in “emergency situation”. It has also been predicted that with multidimensional security crisis, weak fiscal and macroeconomic policies, the number could double between June and August this year, an evidence of the horrific state of hunger in Nigeria right now. On its part, the World Bank says that almost half the population of Nigeria is at risk of an emergency food crisis due to a combination of rising inflation, exchange rate uncertainty, among other factors. As usual, some APC Governors few days ago were in a make-believe, spin cycle, claiming falsely, that President Tinubu has done well to provide food for the citizens, that the present hardship should be seen as a ‘global’ problem. Common on and get serious!
The Global Hunger Index for last year speaks volumes of the deep hole our country is in. Nigeria was ranked 103 out of 121 countries. The ranking will certainly get worse by the time the 2024 report is released. The report which ranks countries by severity, also gave Nigeria a low score of 27.3 percent out of 100 percent. This is a red flag that any responsible government should take very seriously. The message is clear: many Nigerians may die of hunger if there is no urgent intervention to ameliorate the suffering of the people. In the president’s South West, people are crying out, “Ebin pawa o”. It’s a cry of crushing poverty and hunger. While this pain cry goes on, the President is borrowing from Buhar’s manuscript by filling in key positions with cronies from his geopolitical zone. I suspect that this President has an agenda that is still unfolding. It will be clear to discerning minds in the fullness of time. For now, all promises of ‘Renewed Hope’ remain just a slogan, if not already consigned to the dustbin of the past.
That’s what happens when the Commander in Chief and those he surrounds himself with, are living in denial. Now, the big question: Is the President still battling with “spiritual forces” that Chief Akande claimed, more than a year after taking office? Recall that Akande said this early this year at a lecture in Kaduna, organised by a called that calls itself the Arewa Think tank. Tinubu, Akande said, battled spiritual forces before his inauguration. He blamed it on the opposition, which he alleged tried to “deny” Tinubu victory at the polls, but “he won”. According to Akande, whose children have been handsomely rewarded with juicy appointments by the President, there were seen and unseen threats by the opposition to deny Tinubu victory in the presidential election. He also accused some pastors of spending “sleepless nights”, and declaring “spiritual threats” and political maneuvering so that Tinubu would not be in good health to be inaugurated as President. But Akande boasted that in spite of that, “Tinubu remains divinely healthy”.
So what is holding the President from reading the writing on the wall, that hunger has engulfed the country? He needs reminding that a catastrophic implosion is brewing, reminiscent of the Arab Spring- that wave of protests and demonstrations that swept across the Middle East and some North African countries that started on December 17, 2010. If this government thinks that is not possible in Nigeria, it should have a rethink. No doubt, things have reached a boiling point. That’s part of the reasons why many multinationals are leaving the country in droves. Anger and frustration are eating deep into the citizens like acid. Early this year, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubukar III had expressed fear that with hunger, poverty and joblessness spreading in the country, Nigeria “is sitting on a keg of gunpowder”. We may be closer to that apocalypse now than anyone could have imagined a year ago. Is Tinubu overwhelmed by the challenges confronting the nation or simply incapable of handling them as some critics have said? He should answer the question and avoid looming disaster. It’s time for governance.