Last Monday, some highly placed individuals who play in the private sector of the Nigerian economy, at a meeting to assess the state of the nation in relation to the #EndBadGovernace protest and what the Federal Government could have done to avert it, were unanimous in their views that there has been a failure of policies and programmes of government.
They spoke in tandem, saying that the government has been playing the ostrich in matters that concern good governance.
They also picked holes in the nationwide broadcast by the President, saying that those who wrote the speech did not put on their thinking cap.
Since last Thursday, Nigerian youths have been on the streets across the country calling for a change in the government’s policies and programmes, and making such policies wear a human face.
The hungry and angry youths are out in the streets waving placards with all manner of anti-government inscriptions. Some of the protesters brandished empty cooking pots, complaining that hard times had prevented them from having food to cook in their homes.
The processions were peaceful on the first day, to the point that some governors received them and gave some soothing words. In Rivers State, in particular, Governor Sim Fubara did not only speak peaceably with them; he promised to release “something” to enable them to buy water.
“They spoke in tandem that the government has been playing the ostrich in matters that concern good governance.”
By Friday, the second day of the protest, the colour of the agitation began to change. Some elements regarded in the government’s circles as hoodlums infiltrated the ranks and began to make the exercise violent.
Protesters pointed fingers at the government as the sponsor of the anti-protest march at the MKO Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
The protesters hit the streets last Monday, determined to complete the 10-day duration already set for the exercise. But in Rivers, the protest became very much politicised as opposing parties pointed fingers at each other.
Unlike the days before when the protesters were peaceful and molested no one and allowed free flow of traffic, Monday was different as they blocked major roads and went violent.
In Lagos State, where Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had spoken to them and given them assurances that certain programmes would be put in place, the state government went ahead to obtain a court order, further restricting the protesters to only two locations—Freedom and Peace Parks. It was to prevent the march being hijacked by other elements.
In Jos, Plateau State, where some politicians had commended the protesters for being peaceful, the exercise took a drastic turn, warranting the imposition of curfew by the state governor. And despite the angry frown by the Kaduna and Kano State governors over the level of destruction visited on the states and the dangerous bent of waving the Russian national flag, the protesters still went on the streets.
Read also: 51 suspects arrested for violating curfew, attempt to vandalize properties in Jos
Poverty in the North palpable
It has been proven that hunger, poverty, and deprivation were the main sponsors of the protests, particularly in the Northern region.
The Northern states became tense as looting of public and private properties became the order of the day. Before the end of Friday, figures of deaths and a huge number of wounded protesters flooded the media space. Nobody has yet accepted responsibility for the casualties.
The level of hunger in the North is mind-boggling. Over the years, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and now the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, had said that the Northern elite had impoverished their people.
Not long ago, Emir Aminu Ado Bayero of Kano decried the high level of poverty in his domain. Consequently, he sent Remi Tinubu, wife of the President, to tell her husband that the people of Kano were languishing in hunger.
A credible source told BusinessDay last Monday that things have become so difficult in Kano that “some people are now eating grass.”
Explaining why the protest seemed to be hot in Kano, he said: “Right now, life is difficult to survive in Kano. People can no longer afford rice, beans, corn, or millets. Things have become so costly that people have been pushed to the wall. Some people are eating grass in Kano, I can tell you.”
The statistics bear eloquent testimony to the quote above. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in May 2024 said that one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.
Also, the Kaduna State governor, Ubah Sani, said that 70 percent of Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children are domiciled in the north, adding that 70 percent of adults in the north are financially excluded while 65 percent of the people are living below the poverty line.
True to Governor Sani’s submission, the poverty situation in the North is severe. The region is facing a raft of problems. It is economically disadvantaged compared to the rest of the country, with 87 percent of poor Nigerians living in the north. There is limited access to education and basic infrastructure such as electricity, clean drinking water, and sanitation. Job prospects are low.
Observers strongly believe that the Federal Government is still treating the problem of hunger in the country as a minor issue and shying away from reality when it claims that enemies of the government were out to destabilise the government.
Read also: Rivers APC says midnight meetings were held to attack its secretariat
Uncultivated vast land and the ‘rice politics’
Recently, Senator Ali Ndume and a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) raised the alarm over the seriousness of hunger in the land, pointing out that the government was just playing to the gallery with the claim that it was on top of its game in relation to providing the needed food for the citizenry.
Ndume said that despite the grandstanding and propaganda, the nation’s food reserves across the country were empty. He was punished in the Senate for speaking out.
Last Tuesday, Ndume reportedly visited the party’s headquarters in Abuja, where he apologised to the Abdullahi Ganduje-led National Working Committee (NWC) for not making his observation known to the party first before going to town with his criticism. He nonetheless stuck to his guns, insisting that his observations were factual.
A lot has been said about promoting mechanised agriculture in Nigeria. There have been many talks around making lands available for meaningful agricultural activities by governments at all levels. It is baffling that the government has not moved beyond the conception of ideas.
It beats many hollow points that despite the fact that Nigeria has more vast land than Thailand, Nigeria has continued to rely on that country for rice imports.
Today, the Federal Government is running helter-skelter, trying all manner of ad-hoc measures to provide some grains, promising to combat food inflation in no time at all.
The decision to reduce the multifarious needs of Nigerians to just “rice” is clearly a missed mark. Come to think of it: There are millions of Nigerians who have not received a grain of rice, millet, corn, or any of the food items the government pushes out as palliatives. But they are still Nigerians. Chances are that none of the protesters on the streets have received a ‘derica’ of rice from the so-called palliatives.
It is believed in many quarters that the politics surrounding the released rice and its distribution to the target citizens may have defeated whatever intended outcome.
Observers insist that paying lip service to the fight against insecurity will not help shore up food production in the country. The Nigerian government is focussing on food importation while it allows bandits and killer herdsmen to occupy the vast arable land and prevents farmers from accessing their farmland.
The Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the country are populated by farmers who fled their native communities as invaders chased them away. Nigeria would not be talking about food inflation if those hundreds of thousands in the IDP camps were in their homes and engaged in farming activities.
Read also: Edo guber: Disregard APC’s fake judgement in circulation, PDP tells electorate
Security agencies see the hand of political opponents.
Whereas the protesters have insisted that they were pushed to the street by hunger, poverty, and below-par governance, the security agencies say they see opponents of the government trying to cause a regime change, leveraging the protest. They claim they had uncovered the elements. The Directorate of State Service (DSS) said they were yet to arrest the said sponsors, rather preferring to adopt moral suasion.
Since the protest began, the apparatuses of the military, police, and other paramilitary agencies have met countless times to review situations and issue warnings and threats.
Observers say had such meetings been held and such a level of attention paid to the wave of insecurity in the country, Nigeria would have long been rid of every form of insecurity, and the protest would not have arisen in the first place.
They believe that the food inflation, which is the major plank of the protest, would have been nipped in the bud if Nigerians had access to their farms to cultivate food.
Enters President Tinubu with controversial speech
The nationwide broadcast last Sunday by President Bola Tinubu has been variously described as not salutary enough. A private sector player said: “There was no apology; no empathy.”
Another said, “He spoke as if he were giving a campaign manifesto. He went ethnic, further giving his administration ethnic colouration.”
Yet. another insists: “I will suggest Mr. President should have to make another broadcast. The one he made last Sunday, he did not address the questions those boys on the street are asking him.”
Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, described the speech as “terribly underwhelming to read,” adding, “it was a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and an outline of convincing evidence-based actions that his government will take to address bad governance in the country.”
