This is no time to envy the president. Common folk, sometimes, wish they were commander-in-chief, but with Nigeria needlessly on its knees and the people in all sorts of discomfort, you can’t indulge in such fancies
By Ogochukwu Ikeje
The story is told of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s food preferences in his days at Aso Rock. He had the nation’s editors and media managers over for a presidential chat, the story goes. And after an impressive meal of pounded yam and who-can-remember-what-matching-soup, the host returned to the kitchen to ask for a plate of beans.
They obliged him, of course. Who would turn down the commander-in-chief in his own castle?
The president is not just another fellow in the building. His word is law. What he wants, he gets. He hires and fires, and can get anyone to do his bidding. Everyone smiles in his face, calls him ‘Your Excellency’, and puts on their best behaviour in his presence. For the vanity of it, this presidential atmosphere tastes good.
But since May 29, last year, it is doubtful if any of the over 200 million people that President Bola Tinubu leads has coveted his office. That day, shortly after that famous declaration of ‘Petroleum subsidy is gone’, I walked over to a nearby petrol station only to see a barricade. No fuel, they said. The facilities that opened, had their meters adjusted and their patrons dazed. It was the first slap. Others were to follow. Diesel and cooking gas prices jumped. Bus fares too.
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Then food for the common folk: bread, garri, yam, cassava and their flour, rice and beans, beef and fish. It was tough buying them in the old order, in the new, it has become near impossible. And with the naira in a free fall, the groans began, first in the home, but now out in the open, across the country. As your columnist put this piece together, protesters in Ibadan, Oyo State, told the president the poor were starving, and that he shouldn’t forget his promises.
Before Ibadan, women, on February 6, blocked a major road in Niger State to protest the new ordeal. They were later joined by the men, and it took what the police themselves called “minimal force” to break them up. In Osogbo, the Osun State capital, youths screamed that they could no longer cope.
“They promised renewed hope but what they are giving is renewed hardship,” they chorused. At the Government House, they shouted, “Maize is expensive, fuel is expensive. We are pushed to the wall. Enough is enough.”
In Kano, on February 8, the tempo rose. “To pretend that all is well is dangerous,” the protesters said. “Those close to the president should tell him the truth that the masses are suffering.” In Ogun, the message was the same: we are starving.
Lagos, the president’s home state, may have cried out first. As his convoy drove past on Lagos Island during a short visit late December, there were no waves from the street, only shouts of Ebi npawa o, ebi npawa o, Yoruba for ‘We are dying of hunger! There have also been desperate crowds being flogged to get a loaf of bread for N100. And another scrambling for free yam.
Has the president got the message? Yes.
Coupled with an uptick in killings and abductions for ransom, the president and his team have been meeting and making all sorts of pronouncements. They’ve talked about releasing grains from the national reserves. They’ve talked about forcing foodstuff prices down through a price control board, and then jettisoned the idea. They government said there will be no more food imports. The petroleum subsidy, which was ‘gone’ eight months ago, is back, to forestall another hike, we hear.
Still, there is no relief for the people, and few believe that anything meaningful is being done.
Longsuffering pensioners say they will strip themselves in protest if things don’t get better soon. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has also served a protest notice.
There are times when the common folk wish they sat in the most powerful seat in the land as commander-in-chief. But with the country on its knees, they will shelve the dream. The job is tough.
In 1976, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, the one Queen Elizabeth II loved, resigned from office, citing physical and mental exhaustion. He had started drinking brandy to cope with stress. Mr. Wilson had spent nearly eight years as prime minister. President Tinubu has just spent eight months.