I HAVE not said anything for a long time because sometimes when there are so much to be said, it is hard to know where to start. Prolonged silence could mean approval of the status quo. There are so many disturbing situations in Nigeria begging for attention.
Subsidy has gone since May 29, 2023. We were told that the proceeds from its removal would be channelled to address issues that demand urgent national attention. Nigerians are yet to see anything. There is a heavy pall of secrecy around government’s handling of the fuel subsidy proceeds. News of some underhand dealings was drowned by the artificial noise of Bettagate.
The APC government that is schooled in the arcane art of propaganda and doublespeak are deliberately obscuring and distorting reality. To attribute the protest in Kano and Minna over high prices of food stuff to the handiwork of desperate opposition by APC spokesperson, Mr Felix Morka, is to me, the worst display of mental laziness.
Where we are today, some watery propaganda cannot work anymore. Reality is glaringly and menacingly staring on us. Government cannot deceive us, neither can the opposition. You can struggle to get to government. Use any method known to you, so long as you are able to beat the law. You can even snatch it and run with it, but you can’t snatch governance. Governance exposes the intelligence or otherwise of the people in power. We are now at a level where Nigerians already know what the reaction of government will be in any given situation…
When people are murdered in hundreds by acclaimed unknown gunmen, we already know what the response of government will be. When people are kidnapped, or assassinated for any reason, or disaster, whether natural or man-made occurs, government has ready rehearsed scripts to deliver.
The prevailing situation in the country has unveiled the weakness, ineptitude and unpreparedness of the people in power. Nigerians who protested in Kano and Minna were just exercising their fundamental human right to protest in the face of misrule, agonising poverty, hunger, killings, and other harrowing experiences under the Tinubu administration.
We must not forget that the protest was kick-started in Lagos in December 2023 when the president was returning home for end-of-year holiday. Lagosians from diverse ethnic groups lined up on the way to his house and stridently voiced out their pains. Nigerians are angry. The level of hardship is unprecedented. One of the ways they can register their displeasure is through peaceful protest. The days ahead will witness more protests except if government do things differently and better. Every mind, both young and old, is already agitated.
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We can only wish that such protests are peaceful. No nation can allow wanton destruction of properties under any guise. People in South East and South South geopolitical zones are already battling with soaring and excruciating prices of food items and same for all parts of this country. The government of APC, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, must rise up to the demand of its mandate. Government cannot deceitfully mount propaganda against the opposition and ordinary citizens. If anything goes wrong it is the APC government that will take the blame.
The First lady has turned to a motivational speaker and his spiritual father, Enoch Adeboye, is telling those who care that our problem is spiritual. It is good for leaders and elites to satisfy themselves and make sure they lack nothing and then advice the ordinary citizens to exercise patience that things will be alright, even when they never believed. It is clear that unless things are done differently, Nigerians will be suffocated by hunger and economic hardship.
The few protests, including the last one in Ota, Ogun State, were necessitated by the reality on ground. The opposition has no hand in it. To the best of my knowledge, leading opposition figures like Peter Obi, Atiku and Kwakwanso don’t trade on local food stuffs.
A government that is not leading by example cannot give an advice that people can connect with. At the inception of this administration, all criticisms against the over-bloated cabinet and hasty subsidy removal were not heeded. The procurement of expensive cars for members of the National Assembly did not reflect reality on ground and all criticisms against that move was never heeded.
Subsidy has gone since May 29, 2023. We were told that the proceeds from its removal would be channelled to address issues that demand urgent national attention. Nigerians are yet to see anything. There is a heavy pall of secrecy around government’s handling of the fuel subsidy proceeds. News of some underhand dealings was drowned by the artificial noise of Bettagate.
The First lady has turned to a motivational speaker and his spiritual father, Enoch Adeboye, is telling those who care that our problem is spiritual. It is good for leaders and elites to satisfy themselves and make sure they lack nothing and then advice the ordinary citizens to exercise patience that things will be alright, even when they never believed. It is clear that unless things are done differently, Nigerians will be suffocated by hunger and economic hardship.
There’s no rocket science in governance. When government is moving in the right direction, people will know. A government that is bereft of ideas will naturally raise group of hirlings to help blackmail, intimidate and harangue the opposition and the citizens. I am surprised that the people who deceived all of us years back to believe that they are progressives, who criticised every government and proffered cosmetics solution, are today afraid of criticism. People who want to do the right thing never seek for power through the wrong route. Those who deceived people, lied and circumvent rules and conventions to get to power always have ulterior motives. Tinubu’s economic policies have exacerbated the situation, leaving many in dire straits, signalling imminent danger.
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History has never been at fault. It will be difficult to make a good president by someone who is politically eccentric. A person who views national issues through ethnic prism. If a people do not believe that diverse perspectives are important in shaping national democratic trajectory, then occupying a national office will be herculean.
All the noise about restructuring the country has fizzled out since the emergence of Ahmed Tinubu. The promise of restoring constant supply of electricity in six months, has since been thrown into the dust bin of propaganda.
Recent experiences, especially economic frustration and insecurity, have made some Nigerians to question the western-style of democracy that we adopted; to doubt whether it can deliver sustainable development. This “trust deficit” is exacerbated by persistent conflicts, high cost of governance, corruption, poverty, indiscipline, inefficiency, insecurity, high-level unemployment, and divisiveness that pervades the land.
In the face of all these, APC and its hirelings are annoyingly mounting propaganda to deceive the public. What concerns Nigerians if Obi and Atiku have billions of dollars in their bank accounts? Nigerians are aware that APC Chieftain and their national leaders keep their millions of dollars inside bullion vans in their homes. APC will drown itself in its pool of propaganda.
Amechi, a trade unionist and pro-democracy activist, writes from Lagos.
