Nigeria may soon go up in flames, if boiling tempers are not assuaged. Nobody can deny the scorching hunger in the land.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has rightly stated that the cost of food has gone up by multiple digits. Essential staples are no longer within reach of most Nigerian homes.
Recently, a hapless Nigerian man climbed up a mast in the FCT, Abuja; he could no longer cope with the hardship and wanted to end it all. A couple was also arrested in Isolo, Lagos, while negotiating to sell their only child. The father confessed that he was pushed by hunger to convince his wife of the evil plot so that at least the boy would not die of starvation.
Perhaps, people have even eaten their children like the two women who connived likewise in the days of Prophet Elisha. God forbid!
Sadly, those benefiting from evil deny the ugliness of the times. That has brought us to this cul de sac where some faceless youths are planning a nationwide protest beginning from August 1.
They want to draw the government’s attention to the severe strain on the economic wellbeing of Nigerians because it seems the government is impervious to what the people are passing through.
Admittedly, protest is an undeniable fundamental human right, more so in a democracy. President Bola Tinubu has admitted participating in similar protests in the past, even during military regimes.
However, the right to protest has a corresponding responsibility not to be riotous or violent. Nobody can hide behind the right to freedom of expression or association to hurt others whose lives are also constitutionally guaranteed. That is where the problem begins because the society is governed by law, which, essentially, is to protect and safeguard the citizens and their property. Even in a democracy, law is supreme. So, one is bound to act lawfully, whether you are protesting or not. There is always a consequence for doing otherwise.
How the security agencies would draw the line between protecting protesters’ lives and those of non-protesters in harms’ way is an issue.
This is so because experience has shown that government and extra-governmental agencies are known to sponsor protests and counter-protests. When these opposing forces encounter one another on the field, violence becomes inevitable, as hoodlums are always available to expropriate such outings no matter the intention. Those appealing for restraint do so because of the likelihood of a hijack that could dovetail into monstrous anarchy.
The protests should not be just about hunger in the land. It should also be about the consciousness of who we are. We have manacled ourselves to cyclic corruption at all levels. The only difference is that we all do not have the opportunity to steal at the same time. Those protesting today do so because their opportunity has not come. Once it comes, you will see them, singing different tunes like we have seen in today’s anti-protest campaigners. So, Nigerians need a mental reset.
We are governments unto ourselves in our little spaces. We have always sought opportunities to hate, to steal and to cheat one another. Have you not seen the video trending online where the grains provided by the Tinubu administration were being re-bagged for sale? Have you not heard that some zones are yet to get the rice palliatives the Tinubu government provided for the people through supposedly representatives, who are still walking free, offering no explanations? Whoever attains a position, steals from the people brazenly, only to be seized suddenly by a strange illness inside courtrooms. Strangely, nobody gets to know what transpires after the deceit. They get away with their loot and return to their mosques or churches for thanksgiving.
Nigeria is in a rotten patch; the protests worsen it. Even the president has said he is not against protests but its mismanagement. That is where the problem is. Will the organisers be able to control the throng of protesters? Will they be able to ensure that hooligans and street urchins are not suborned to use the opportunity to achieve invidious designs?
It is also important to give a face to the conveners of these protests. The anonymity of the leaders makes it ominous. Only a fool would follow a guide without a face. Because the conveners are unknown, whoever keys into the plan is exposed to great risk. There cannot be effective control without a recognisable face and voice dictating the pace.
However, while appealing to the organisers to reconsider, it is also imperative to urge the government to also rejig its programmes and actions. It would be unfair to say this administration has not done anything as some are wont. The truth is that whatever they have done has not directly impacted the people. If anything, they are more like building castles in the air.
How could the government be spending trillions of naira to build coastal roads while virtually all roads across the country are death traps? How could the government even be contemplating buying presidential jets at a time like this? How could the lawmakers spend a whopping N160 million each to buy SUVs for themselves?
So, members of the House of Representatives have slashed their salaries by 50 percent? Is this ‘’sacrifice’ a joke or mockery? What happens to the hefty allowances? Even at that, why has the fiddling Senate kept mum, and all public office holders, including governors? Why does the president keep appointing people to the already overly bloated government?
The other day, I read about a special assistant who has appointed his own special assistant. This obvious profligacy in government quarters is what has angered the people, especially when they are told to make sacrifices. Nigerians have sacrificed enough.
The Jagaban must act fast. How could people under his watch plot to kill messianic Dangote Refinery, which would free Nigeria from its age-long economic bleeding?
The government has not lived up to its electoral promise to revive the country’s refineries. And here is a man who has come to help but those feeding on the country’s misery want to frustrate him. Why have the country’s four refineries been unable to work despite recurrent Turn Around Maintenance?
The National Assembly and the Presidency should not baulk this time around; action is needed, not probe. The frequent probes by the parliament are akin to a mosquito’s proboscis, further sucking the economic blood out of the dying country it purports to save. What happened to the results of previous exercises on various sectors after expending billions? Several times, there had been probes into adulterated and toxic fuels imported into this country without any report or punitive action. Was it Dangote that imported them?
Dangote, irrespective of how anyone feels, is on a mission to rescue the prostrate country from the stranglehold of vampires. Of course, they wouldn’t let go easily. So, beyond probe, the president, who also doubles as petroleum minister, must wield the big stick? We need to know those behind the blending plants in the Maltese island. Mele Kyari’s denial is not enough. We also need to know how much stake NNPC has in the Dangote Refinery, and why the confusing and contradictory claims.
Considering that the country’s slip downhill exacerbated after the removal of the obnoxious fuel subsidy, another milk cow for economic robbers, the president must get to the root of this matter.
I wish the conveners of the proposed nationwide protests would calm down and give the president more time to address their grievances. It would also prevent another onslaught on Ndigbo from bloodthirsty jackals, who for no reason blame the ethnic group for even the soured soup in their wives’ refrigerators. They are already red herring the people despite their intentional aloofness to any protest since this administration berthed.
It is time the president got a thick wet blanket and douse the impending conflagration NOW. He should not be deceived that enemies are after his government. Maybe, but he should not play into their hands. Nigerians are genuinely hungry and vulnerable.
The president should remove the misfiring sycophants dragging down his government. Let him address the country and assure them on cogent, directly impactful programmes so that even those already sold to these protests would retrace their steps before the D-Day.
Hopefully, Nigeria shall prevail!