By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim
Before the hunger protest eventually began on the 1st August 2024, I had earlier observed as follows: “With the present situation, if the protest is no longer to hold, the Nigerian people have already won in the sense that the government is already agitated and afraid. Forget about the boast going round on the part of the government that they are not afraid, that was only meant to safe face. With the level of hunger and suffering presently on the ground all over the country, it will not be in the interest of anyone to carry out any protest whether in a particular venue or on the streets. I am not denying the right of people to stage protest but with the way some people are frustrated and suffering from hunger and starvation, peaceful nature of the protest may not be guaranteed as some hoodlums who are already desperate may hijack the protest to perpetrate criminal activities. There are people that have become so fed up and depressed that they are now resorting to committing suicide like hanging themselves on the trees, jumping into rivers and climbing the communication masts shouting they are fed up of living. There are those that can go to the midst of a gathering to blast off themselves. Can this set of people be allowed to be part of any protest gathering or demonstration?
What I had expected from the President after meeting with his Ministers, Governors and Traditional Rulers among others was to make a national broadcast to address Nigerians and plead with them for their understanding and a bit of patience but that was not to be. President Tinubu made the same mistake made by his predecessor, President Buhari when he refused to address the nation during the EndSar Protest until it was hijacked by hoodlums and turned bloody in 2020 particularly in Lagos. One continues to wonder, why did these Presidents find it difficult to address the nation at the right time but had to wait until the destruction of lives and properties had been done? Were the Presidents advised to keep mute by their advisers? What happened has showed that those in government did not learn any lesson from the EndSar Protest. Some government officers or people claiming to be the supporters of President Tinubu did not help matters as they went about making unnecessary and unguided pronouncements.
Senator Akpabio, the Senate President was reported to have said that by the time the protesters would be going on with their protest they (probably referring to himself and other government officers) would be going on eating. This has gone a long way to show that the contemporary politicians and leaders are not sensitive about the plights of Nigerians who elected them into power. While former Governor of Ekiti State was going about disparaging the Northerners, Sunday Igboho saw the protest as an attempt to revolt against President Tinubu who is a Southerner because according to him similar protest was never staged against President Buhari who is a Northerner when he was in government. If this are the set of people advising President Tinubu, my advice to him is to be very careful with such people as according to the late General Muritala Ramat Muhammed, a former Head of State : “Be careful of the company you keep as a man is judged by the company he keeps.”
The hunger protest eventually created two sets of protesters, one protesting against the bad governance while the other group was supporting the government against the protest that it should be given more time to carry out the economic reforms it has set for itself. On the eve of the protest, the Federal authority in Abuja and Governments of Lagos and Ogun Stated went to court to obtain Ex–Parte orders to restrict the protests to particular areas. But when the protest eventually hit the ground in some part of the country it was in no way different from the fear earlier expressed or predicted. While the protest was peaceful in some states it was the other way round in some states particularly in some parts the North. The outcome of the protest was not very pleasant as expressed by President Tinubu, himself in his eventual broadcast to the nation when he said :
“I am especially pained by the loss of lives in Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna and other states, the destruction of public facilities in some states, and the wanton looting of supermarkets and shops, contrary to the promise of protest organisers that the protest would be peaceful across the country .The destruction of properties sets us back as a nation , as scarce resources will be again used to restore them.”
I am of the view that if the President had come out as quickly as possible probably the protest would have been averted but since we live in the country where nothing appropriate will be done by leaders until the damage is already done. Leaders prefer to be chasing shadow where there is none. Alhaji Abba Yusuf, the Kano State Governor that encouraged his people to embark on protest that he was even ready to lead the protest has now seen clearly what has happened to his State. Every responsible leader must be accountable to his people as the saying goes that no matter how great a man, he cannot be greater than his people. A good leader must not isolate himself from his people as he owes them the responsibility to be addressing them from to time to time on what is going on that is not clear to the people as that is what accountability is all about. The incumbent government has not done well in terms of communicating with the Nigerians. According to the President:“ My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear .I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerned of our citizens”
If one may ask, must our leaders only be attentive when many lives have been lost and properties destroyed? If the right things had been done to encourage dialogue through regular briefing or addressing Nigerian citizens on the activities of the government, the situation where the President will later come out to say — : “ I speak to you with a heavy heart and sense of responsibility , aware of the turmoil and violent protests unleashed in some of our states….I commiserate with the families and relations of those who have died in the protests. We must stop further bloodshed, violence and destruction” — would have been averted, but unfortunately we live in the part of the world where we are used to this kind of speeches as a result of inactions of leaders when the situation arises.
The hunger protest is not without great lesson to be learnt from it as it has taught the leaders at the helm of affairs ,if they are ready to learn not to toy with the welfare of the people particularly when it comes to the stomach infrastructure as an hungry man is an angry man. The protest has really showed how hardship and suffering can push many Nigerians both young and old , male and female into unnecessary looting and engaging in unwarranted criminal activities being attributed to the effect of removal of subsidies which we have earlier contended was done in haste without any concrete plan on the ground not to bite hard on the people. What suppose to have been done long ago or put in place before the removal of the subsidies is now what the government is talking about as according to the President in his national broadcasting:
“I have been meeting with our Governors and key Ministers to accelerate food production. We have distributed fertilizers .Our target is to cultivate more than 10 million hectares of land to grow what we eat. The Federal Government will provide all necessary incentives for this initiative, whilst the states provide the land, which will put millions of our people to work and further increase food production. In the past few months, we have also ordered mechanized farming equipment such as tractors and planters, worth billions of Naira from the United States, Belarus , and Brazil. I can confirm to you that the equipment is on the way”.
Precisely on 29th May 2023, President Tinubu in his speech after being sworn in talked about creation of agricultural hubs throughout the nation to increase food production where farmers would earn more while the average Nigerian would pay less but since then there has been anything on the ground to show that his administration is fulfilling that pledge with the astronomical increase in the price of food or its scarcity. With the latest promise to cultivate 10 millions hectares of land to grow what we eat, one just hopes this will not be another rhetoric as actions are seriously needed in this direction . There is no doubt that various state Governors are in charge of the land that will be meant to cultivate what to eat only but effort must also be made to revive various farm settlements and cash crops plantations that used to be in different parts of the country to boost production of raw materials and the growth of industries as well as the exportation of the excess to earn foreign exchange. To make this a reality, the issue of insecurity must be seriously addressed. The idea of Federal Government just pumping money to various states governors without asking them what they are doing with the money is not proper. The Governors must be made to be accountable. The President and the Nigerian people must ask the Governors questions on how the money are being spent on the agriculture which they are meant for.The agricultural incentives must be given directly to the real farmers and not the political or briefcase farmers. Since the President has admitted that the buck stops on his table, the responsibility is now on him to directly monitor and question the Governors on how they spend the money give to them to carry out federal government policy on agriculture as it is the name of the President that will be at stake at the end of the day.
The hunger protest has clearly showed to us that we still have a long way to go looking at several acts of criminalities perpetrated by some hoodlums in different parts of the country raging from looting of shops belonging to other citizens and destruction government properties. This is the effect of bad governance that has been in place for decades when the children that ought to be in schools are seen roaming about the streets when many parents have abandoned their parental responsibilities on theit children and government is doing nothing to checkmate all these vices. There must be sanctions on parents who derive pleasure in have children but not ready to discharge their responsibilities on those children.Government’s failure to discharge its responsibility including the neglect of the public institutions is also a contributing factor why some children are out of schools and where many of the parents cannot afford sending their children to the private schools.As a result of this ,you see many children of school age running about the streets.It is some of this kind of children that eventually become nuisance to the general public and can easily be recruited as political thugs, hoodlums and terrorists.
Leaders at the helm of affairs continue to tell Nigerians to endure the pain and economic hardship but unfortunately these leaders themselves are not living by example as being seen from their lifestyle of extravagance. He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.There are leaders that always behave as if they will remain in power forever forgetting that no condition is permanent.A leader can only take glory for the economic reforms he embarks upon and become fruitful during his tenure.
You can not take glory for an unfinished reforms you set for yourself as it is the person that comes after and finishes the reform that will take the glory.That is why is not always good for a leader to take more than he can chew.A good leader upon assumption of office must immediately hit the ground running as time does not wait for anybody.The common assertion that a leader needs more time to perform never make any sense to me.A leader that does make meaningful and positive impact within six months or one year may achieve nothing if he is to be there for a decade.Leadership is not a tea party but about vision, service and performance.
What some so-called protesters subsequent brought into the protest was very unreasonable and betrayed the essence of the protest which was basically on hunger and hardship being faced by the people. But when some protesters are asking the elected President to resign and those that lost election should step in or asking the military to take over the reign of government or flying the flag of another country such demands cannot be said to be genuine.It amount to nothing but conspiracy and treason to unlawfully or unconstitutionally take over the democratically elected government. There is no doubt that the contemporary politicians whether in APC or PDP have failed let Nigerians down as what we have today is nothing but one political party with no viable opposition on the ground. Many of the politicians in APC today which is the ruling party are at one time or the other members of the PDP that was the ruling party before the APC came in through merger to remove the PDP from government and since the coming of the APC into power nothing has changed as promised .It has been like from frying pan to the fire.They are the both sides of the same coin.
What is the next thing to be done now that the hunger protest over? Genuine and patriotic Nigerians that really have the love of this country at hearts and ready to serve selflessly need to come together irrespective of tribal and religious affiliation to come up with a strong and true people’s political party with socialist ideology as the contemporary politicians with the capitalist ideology meant only for themselves ,their families and friends cannot take us to the promised land. If the energy put into the hunger protest can be directed towards having a new political party with serious political education and enlightenment from the grassroot before the next election in 2027, one hopes this will greatly assist in bring about the true aspiration of Nigerians.
NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my above submissions as I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and objective rebuttal.
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abdurasheedibrahim362@gmail.com
7th August 2024
