Tinubu and lawmakers in panic mode, police on red alert
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Some youths are planning a nationwide protest lasting 10 days from August 1, with the idea gaining traction North and South, to draw the attention of government at all levels to the plight of citizens suffering hunger while public officials feed fat.
Bola Tinubu has taken loans since he became President that amount to about half the N80 trillion his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari obtained is his entire eight years in office.
Much of the borrowing has been frittered away in misallocations rather than being spent on priority sectors – examples, power and agriculture – that would enable Nigerians produce goods and services to earn money to take care of themselves and their families without being boxed into a corner to collect measly government hand-outs that Tinubu uses to glorify himself and wet the ground for his re-election.
- Tinubu has allocated huge funds for at least three items that are not constitutional – Office of the First Lady, Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, and traditional rulers.
- He voted N1.5 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget for the Office of the First Lady (occupied by his wife Remi) to purchase luxury vehicles.
- He allocated N21 billion to the Office of his Chief Staff in the 2024 budget – in which he also ring-fenced N5 billion to buy cars for traditional rulers, besides the N7.9 billion he allocated to them in the 2023 supplementary budget.
- Meaning Tinubu has doled out nearly N13 billion to traditional rulers alone within six months just to bribe them to help him rig election for his second term in 2027.
Meanwhile, he argues there is no money to pay workers little more than N30,000 per month as minimum wage in a country where Senators earn more than N30 million each month.
The Executive Order he issued in July 2023 declaring a state of emergency on food is only a paper tiger. Food prices have risen steadily since then, with food inflation now above 40 per cent.
Previous protest in the Tinubu era
Angry youths and women in February took to the streets in Minna, Kano, and Ibadan, then Lagos, to protest the astronomical rise in the prices of food and other essential commodities.
Some of the protesters were arrested by the police and the agitation hardly changed anything.
Last month, some civil society groups – including the Take It Back Movement, the Education Rights Campaign, the Coalition for Revolution and the Socialist Workers League on June 12 – protested mostly in Tinubu’s South West Zone against the surging cost of living, insecurity and other challenges facing the country.
Their placards read, among others, “President Tinubu, let the poor breathe”, ‘Payment of living wage to all Nigerian workers now”, “End insecurity”, “Nationalise the power sector”, and “Reverse fee hikes now”.
Again, some of the agitators were arrested by police on the orders of Tinubu.
In contrast, weeks of recent protests by youths in Kenya over a tax bill led President William Ruto to make changes. He publicly acknowledged he made mistakes and scrapped the bill, sacked all ministers, except the Vice President, and scrapped the Offices of First and Second Ladies (occupied by his wives) – to cut the cost of governance.
Regardless, Kenyan youths are still pushing for Ruto himself to step down over the death of those killed by the police, even though the police chief has resigned.
Again in contrast, Tinubu has not shifted a bit. Rather, he has increased this size of his already bloated cabinet by creating a new ministry, to increase to 49 the number of ministries (apart from agencies) in his administration, the largest in Nigeria’s history, siphoning funds from the treasury but delivering little to the masses.
Looming protest across 36 states, FCT
The planned protest is scheduled to take place in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), according to reporting by Daily Post.
Some of the organisers in the North are anonymous, but in the South, Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC) has been rallying for the protest via his social media handles.
Sowore, a veteran of several protests in the country, insists “Nothing Can Stop An Idea Whose Time Has Come” #RevolutionNOW.”
He also wrote: “The REVOLUTION is now knocking on our doors! #RevolutionNow. Let everyone rise all once in August 2024!
“Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. They asked for a revolution and It is here now! @officialABAT once asked for a revolution, even @MBuhari once asked for a revolution and Nigerians now want a real revolution.
“Nothing Can Stop An Idea Whose Time Has Come” #RevolutionNOW.”
A flyer making the rounds on social media, titled “End Bad Government in Nigeria 2024” posted by anonymous groups, blamed the protest on 10 policies of the government, which have imposed hardship on Nigerians.
Their demands include:
- “End subsidy scam and reverse fuel price to below N300 per litre
- “Bring tertiary education fees back to their previous rates
- “Restore electricity tariff to affordable levels for the public.
- “Return import duties to their previous rates
- “Publicly disclose and reduce the salaries and allowances of all Senators, House of Representative members
- “Reform EFCC [Economic and Financial Crimes Commission].”
Leaked memo shows police move to halt protest
The police are also on the alert to halt the planned protest, per a leaked memo which cited how “some groups are mobilising for mass protest nationwide beginning from [August] 1 to 10 2024”.
The memo, dated July 8 and copied to Zonal Assistant Inspectors-General of Police, urged officers to be proactive and “mobilise” ahead of the protest.
“INGENPOL directs you to be proactive, mobilize well kitted and equipped personnel, synergize with other sister agencies and the military, takeover all strategic points in your AOR, deploy undercover for intelligent gathering, disperse unlawful gatherings, be in heart-to-heart conversation with community stakeholders, no form of protest must be allowed during the period,” the memo said.
Social commentator and investigative journalist @PIDOMNIGERIA posted the leaked memo on his X (Twitter) handle.
Fear grips lawmakers
The planned nationwide protest has instilled fear in public officer holders, especially lawmakers, who are fidgeting over possible attack on them.
The Senate last Tuesday engaged in a panic debate, expressing fear of attacks by Nigerians angered by the prevailing hardship.
The debate followed a motion, titled “Urgent Need to address Food Insecurity and Market Exploitation of Consumables in Nigeria”, sponsored by Sunday Steve representing (Kogi West) and co-sponsored by Ali Ndume (Borno South).
Former Senate President Ahmed Lawan, after commending the mover of the motion, reiterated Nigerians have exhausted their patience and may come after lawmakers if nothing is done quickly to tackle hunger.
Said he: “If we don’t take immediate action, we will lose the power and our citizens under the situation of increased fuel price, increased electricity price, increased everything and we are yet to get the right measures to provide questions for our constituents.
“We wouldn’t like the kind of thing that we see in our streets and it is time that we take every possible action to get out of the arms of the government to ensure that food floods our country, the right food.”
Days earlier, former Senator Shehu Sani warned Senate President Godswill Akpabio not to drive on a route in Wuse 2 in the FCT because of lingering protests.
Sani said he recently encountered protesters in Wuse 2 carrying placards against “hunger in the land”.
He said some of the protesters recognised him and allowed him to pass but warned Akpabio may not be given a free pass to go through Wuse 2.
“I just passed a group of protesters in Wuse 2, carrying placards against ‘hunger in the land’. Some ladies among them recognised me and shouted “No be that Afro Senator be that”, I answered “yes na me the former Senator”; then they responded “Oya pass”. Make Akpabio no pass there o,” Sani posted on X.
Labour Party (LP) chieftain Kayode Oyeniran said: “If the protest is allowed to hold, government officials may have to find where they will hide themselves.
“The truth is that Nigerians are angry. For the past few months now, there has been debates on the salaries and allowances of the Federal lawmakers.
“I don’t know how much they earn but the way it is painted in public, many Nigerians now see them as their number one enemies.
“It is my prayer that the organisers find other means of expressing their grievances. It must not always be a protest. You see what is happening in Kenya?
“Both the government and the protesters are having a bad time. Protests most times make things worse.
“Sometimes you can’t blame these people. They have had enough and have been patient enough.
“Since 2023, the government has only been making promises. The Port Harcourt refinery that they said would work last year December, I don’t think it is functioning now.
“They said when the CNG vehicles are rolled out, prices of goods will crash, where are the vehicles? How long would Nigerians wait? People are suffering.
“People have come to a level where they are no longer afraid of anything. If you stay back, you may die of hunger and if you protest you may die, so they will tell you that it is better to protest and die. We have never had it like this.”
But Goodluck Ibem, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) President General, advised youths to jettison the protest plan and channel their energy to something useful.
His words: “Nigerian youths should redirect the energy they want to use for protest into farming and full time agriculture. That is the major way to end hunger and food scarcity.
“Many of our farmlands are not cultivated even when we have so many youths. They only want white collar jobs, which are not available.
“We have to remain positive here. Hunger cannot disappear if we fail to embrace farming as a culture and lifestyle. That is the bitter truth.”
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