The Famished Nigerians' Days Of Rage

*Seven days into the mass protests against hardship in Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu's address to placate the nationwide protesters has achieved little or nothing to renew the hopes of Nigerians

With the combined forces of hunger, poverty, starvation, high inflation and bad governance, the hardship in Nigeria has indeed reached the breaking point with push coming to shove.

Prices of food and basic commodities have gone haywire in the last months as Nigerians battle one of the country's worst inflation rates and economic crisis triggered by the twin policies of the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of Forex windows.

The nationwide protests, tagged #EndBadGovernance, that have painfully lasted for more than seven days out of the scheduled 10 days, did not come by a surprise.

The organisers of the action like patriotic citizens in other saner climes, had given abundant notice, propagated it on social media and in the mainstream media to give the government the windows to intervene before things went awry.

Yet, the government, which is supposedly holding power in trust for the citizens, did not deem it necessary to listen to the wailings of the troubled people they are supposed to protect and cater to their needs, welfare and well-being to engender better understanding of the situation.

The rhetorics on the part of the government had always been that they understood the plight of the people and that the policies they had rolled out would ameliorate the sufferings of the people, not in the immediate, but in the long run.

Is it not people who are alive today that will enjoy in the future? If many Nigerians die before getting to the El Dorado, of what benefits will the policies, which lack human face now be to those who may have died because of the strangulating economy?

The government's policies may seem plausible but what happens in the interim when many Nigerians appear to have lost hope in the promises of the government? 

Nigerians can only conjecture the answer because most of the government's promises have yet to bode well with them as each new policy has plunged them deeper into socio-economic mess, which remains the bone of contention and the major cause of the citizens' outcry.

After waiting for long for the government's love, at least to listen to their usual rhetorics, the protesters had no other option but to brave the odds --- shut down entire country last Thursday, August 1, the first day of the nationwide protest.

On the day one,  they initially came in trickles, at least to test the waters. Thereafter, they regrouped themselves, enlarged their tents and soldiered on with placards and banners that had different inscriptions emblazoned on them.

Though some governors and well-meaning individuals were able to appeal to the consciences of the protesters from their states to withdraw from the demonstration which they acquiesced to, the protest saga was a different kettle of fish for many other governors as their angry youths did not budge. In the spirit of 'Take It Back Movement', they went on the rampage and up till now, many have not given up the protests.

From the word go, the demands of nationwide protesters comprised an end to anti-people’s policies, a reversal of fuel price, an increase in the national minimum wage to N300,000, a reversal of the hike in tertiary education fees and transparency and accountability in governance.

Other demands included electoral reforms, including the autonomy of the Independent National Electoral Commission, reforms in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, transition to a unicameral legislature, and reformation of security agencies to stop human rights violations.

Another scary dimension to the protests was the infiltration of some persons who were noticed waving the Russian flag in FCT, Kano, Kaduna, and Zamfara. 

The defiance to belated appeals by the federal government, political elite and other eminent  groups has lead to the destruction of lives and property and in some places, looting of warehouses, torching of buildings and all manner of destructions became the order of the day.

Reportedly, no fewer than 17 persons were feared killed in Abuja, Kano, Niger, Borno, Kaduna and Jigawa during the day one of the protest.

A desperate an angry protester, who claimed he had lost hope in the governance system of the country, in an extreme exhibition of frustration, stripped himself naked in Lagos in the course of the protest.

What about a certain woman, who came to the protest ground with an empty pot to signify that she had been so battered by poverty that she could not afford money to cook? She drew sympathy from many Nigerians to the extent that a certain celebrity took pity on her and gifted her N500,000 to enable her to pick her pieces. 

Businesses, banks, shopping plazas and some markets did not open for fear of the protests escalating into a crisis and it was estimated that billions of Naira was lost, which ordinarily wouldn't have been the case if the protests were nipped in the bud.

The Director of Mobilisation, Take It Back Movement, Damilare Adenola, had insisted that the protest would continue until President Bola Tinubu acceded to their demands and not just a mere broadcast which promises could be jettisoned as soon as the protests end.

Adenola also described the various orders of court restricting protesters to particular locations as an aberration, saying the protesters' presence during the protests until now was an indicator that many Nigerians have been oppressed for too long and they had risen to take back what belongs to the vast majority of the depressed citizens.

An activist and one of the organisers of the nationwide protests, Omoyele Sowore, condemned the killings and harassment of protesters across the country, insisting that the citizens have the right to a peaceful protest.

Sowore stated: “The images we are seeing of peaceful protesters being attacked and harassed, and in some cases shot dead are sad and condemned. People have a right to peaceful protests. It is a right that is globally recognised and codified in our laws.”

He slammed the government for failing to provide economic opportunities among others for the citizens.

Sowore is not alone in the condemnation of the brutal and cruel use of force by security agencies to quell the protests across the states of the country. Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka also condemned the resort to shooting and killing of protesters exercising their fundamental rights to protest and call the federal government's attention to the hardship bedeviling them.

The 90-year-old author and activist, in reaction to President Tinubu's address over the widespread protests, argued that the broadcast failed to address the continued deterioration of the state seizure of protest management, lamenting that the use of bullets and teargas on Nigerian protesters was an abuse of state power.

He rationalised: "The manner in which the security operatives treated the protesters condemns unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger matches in parts of the nation and for which notice was served, constitutes a retrogression that takes the nation even further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed EndSARS protest."

Some socio-economic and political commentators have also berated the use of force and intimidation to deal with a protest that is germane to the nation's survival and a means to tell the government that its performance rating is below average.

They believed that when the protests in Nigeria are juxtaposed with the riots in the United Kingdom, the government of Nigeria still has a lot to learn about protest management.

In Nigeria, people were teargassed, injured and killed, indicating a mindset where the powers-that-be use violence and intimidation to suppress dissenting voices. But in Britain, we all saw the security operatives using batons to dislodge protesters. Nobody heard that they fired live bullets, but here we have a governance system that has no respect for the citizenry.

There is a valid argument that if when Soyinka and now President Tinubu protested in 2012, and the then government of Goodluck Jonathan had sent police officers and soldiers to go and shoot them, would they have been alive today?

It is just a million dollar question that only Tinubu and others who took part in that protest will be able to provide a suitable answer.
Therefore, to guarantee the citizens the right to peaceful protest as guaranteed by the constitution, the security agencies in Nigeria should emulate alternative models in civilised and advanced climes on security intervention and management.

It is believed that the blame game will not solve the current economic logjam confronting Nigerians. All hands must be on deck to chart the best way forward, however, the onus on how to move the country forward lies squarely in the hands of the leaders to ameliorate the current state of the economy which is teethering on the edge of the precipice.

Whether the protesters are able to accomplish the 10-day projection or not, with the remainder of two more days, the fact remains that they have been able to boldly amplify their voices of despair which appear to have resonated with the relevant authorities culminating in President Tinubu's call for dialogue with the organisers.

It is hoped that since the government has been able to aggregate the feelings of the angry Nigerians that all is not well with the country, the wise thing to do is to make amends and fix the rot in the system and drastically address the issues of hunger, poverty, hyper inflation and untold hardship pervading the land. 
A stitch in time saves nine!