INTRO
If William Shakespeare were to be a Nigerian of our generation and times, he would have seized the moment to again address our dear President Tinubu in his famous forewarning lines, “Beware the Ides of March,” which he first rendered through
Spurinna the Seer to Emperor Julius Caesar, in his timeless drama classic – Julius Caesar.
Though the foreboding signs were quite evident, Caesar however was unfazed. He neither took the forewarning to heart nor reckoned with the telling signs of the time. At the occasion of his second encounter with Spurinna while on his way to the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March, he thus jeered at the Seer: “Well the Ides of March are come"...... meaning the anticipated day of evil the Seer had foretold has come, yet no injury had come his way. And to this, Spurinna replied: “Yes, they are come but they are not yet gone”.
For those who have read the drama classic – Julius Caesar, we all know what happened next after that eventful encounter between the duo. Like it is often said, the rest became history.
Shakespeare may have been dead and gone but till date, we still have many who live and have traversed our landscape in the rubric of William Shakespeare. One of such repertoires of wisdom is the 5-Star Journalist, Academic and Atlanta based Professor of Journalism, Farooq Kperogi. Since the beginning of the Tinubu’s Presidency in May 2023, he has published two notable advisory missives to the President. His second and latest wake up call to Mr. President is titled, “TINUBU: Nigeria is Sinking and the Streets are full of Tears”, published by the Nigerian Tribune of 3rd February, 2024. The message reads in part:
“The searing torment that everyday folks are going through in Nigeria right now is so dire, so unbearably extreme, and so unexampled in its rawness that even disporan Nigerians like me who live tens of thousands of miles away from home can feel it not just vicariously but also experientially.
“The unending streams of requests for help to meet the most basic obligations of life that we get from previously proud, resourceful, and self-sufficient family members, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers are the conduits through which we have experimental encounters with the ongoing cost-of-living turmoil in the country.
“The lower classes are sinking deeper into soul-depressing depths of poverty, despair, and hopelessness, and the middle class is so hobbled by the economic crunch that it is disappearing faster than soap bubbles. The lower and the middle classes are now united by a common sensation of emptiness, agony, and anxiety for the future.
“Every day is worse, less hopeful, and more precarious than the previous day for most Nigerians. Even hope, which French Philosopher Francois de la Rochefoucauld assured us is the last thing that dies in humans, is desperately going into a death spiral. That’s an ominous signal President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would do well to not take lightly”, Prof. Farooq asserted.
1.0 THE PREGNANT MOTHER WHO STOLE PLANTAIN
In the nightfall of January 28, 2024 at a village called Agada in Abua Odua Local Government Area of Rivers State, a mother of nine children still in expectant mood of the tenth child; was caught in a combined flurry of hunger and anger which led her to kill another woman named Mrs. Imeran Idema, after the deceased woman tried to stop her from fleeing with a bunch of plantain she stole from the late woman's farm.
The pilfering mother of nine, named Mrs. Esther Godday in her confessional statement to the police stated that it was out of desperation to provide food for her hungry children – nine of them, that she went to steal the bunch of plantain from Mrs. Idema’s farm.
Report has it that after Mrs. Godday must have succeeded in cutting down the plantain from it stock, she was almost on her way out of the farm when she suddenly heard a voice yelling at her, demanding that she drops the plantain.
Certainly, that was the voice of Mrs. Idema who must have been lurking around the farm to watch out for the person who has been dropping by to steal her produce. According to Mrs. Godday, she ignored Mrs. Idema’s directive and kept on advancing towards the farm exit. It is there and then that Mrs. Idema engaged the thief in a hot chase while threatening to use the cutlass on her if she dares to keep running.
It is believed that Mrs. Idema must have flung the matchet she was brandishing at Mrs. Godday, which incidentally gave Madam Godday a cut on the leg. This invariably got the hungry Mrs. Godday so infuriated that she had to turn back and pounce on the farm owner, beat her up and lacerate her body with the matchet she was brandishing.
It was Mrs. Idema’s agonising scream that later alerted members of her household who showed up minutes after Mrs. Godday had fled the scene. She was later evacuated to the hospital where she gave up the ghost after a few days. But before she died, she was able to narrate to her family members what transpired in the farm and who was responsible for her ordeal.
A report was subsequently filed at the police station and the culprit, Mrs. Esther Godday was arrested. She owned up to the crime but however expressed deep regret over the sad incidence which resulted in the untimely death of Mrs. Imeran Idema.
2.0 THE GATHERING STORM OF PROTESTS
About a fortnight ago, our country was hit by a smashing wave of protests which took the nation by storm. Since then, it has been one protest after another. Follow me as I let you into the diary of a benign protest that has spread like wildlife across our nation since that momentary spark in Kano.
• KANO STATE
It all started in Kano State, where women in their hundreds including local bread producers popularly known as “Gurasa” marched through the streets of the ancient city, in protest of the high cost of living especially the rise in the price of flour used largely for the production of bread. In their protest message to the President, the woman chanted, “Everything is expensive, especially flour and grains. Tinubu, come to our aid, we cannot feed our families, most of us are widows and people are dying of hunger”.
Speaking with journalists shortly after the protest, the leader of the group, Hajiya Fatima Auwal noted, “We are out here on the streets protesting to let the leaders know the deteriorating situation in which we are at the moment.
“This is how our small scale business is facing deterioration due to the rise in the price of flour, it is a business for the poor that the rich cannot dare venture into. We are in a very difficult situation, we need help. This is a small scale industry mostly run by women, life is becoming difficult, we can hardly feed or send our children to school due to hardship”, she decried.
“We used to buy flour at the rate of N16,000 in the past but now it sells for N43,000. This is absurd. What we produce is a common food for the poor that is now becoming unaffordable. Any time we go to buy flour, we get an increase of N1,500 to N2,000”, Auwal lamented.
• MINNA, NIGER STATE
Then followed the protest in Minna on Monday 5th February, 2024, which saw a group of women blocking the Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu roundabout, in an attempt to express their grievances over the rising cost of food items. The women group was later joined by the youths and men who took part in the protest to also register their displeasure over the rising cost of food in the country.
One of the youths, Ibrahim Gana lamented that rice was sold at the cost of N2,000 per mudu at Minna markets while maize was N1,000 per measure.
“The federal government needs to take action to reduce the hardship being faced by poor Nigerians. Things are becoming unbearable”, he said.
• OGUN STATE
Then surfaced the trending video of market women from Ogun State expressing their frustration over the prevailing economic hardship in the country. The market women stated that President Tinubu has disappointed Nigerians, especially the Yoruba community. In the video, an elderly woman thus lamented; “he has disappointed us in Yoruba land, he is not behaving like a Yoruba man”.
Another woman said, “Everything is so costly to the extent that we cannot afford to buy one bowl of garri. We are tired of everything. When I started business, a carton of fish was N200, but now it is N20,000”.
• PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE
In Rivers State, it was the case of women protesting against the prolonged power outage in parts of the State capital. The protesting women drawn from the mile 2 and mile 3 axes of the densely populated Diobu area barricaded the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) office near the Isaac Boro Park, lamenting the difficulty they were facing in their marital homes due to intense heat waves caused by constant power outage.
On the placards were different inscriptions like, “We lack romance with our husbands”, “No light, No payments”, “The heat is too much”, “PHED help us to sleep well with our husbands”, “The lack of electricity is making our food sour”, “We cannot even charge our phones or preserve our food” and a lot more.
.
• SULEJA
The protest then took a cruise down to Suleja, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
In Suleja, demonstrators called on the Federal Government to alleviate the hardship in the country, emphasizing that the suffering was becoming unbearable to Nigerians.
• IBEJU-LEKKI, LAGOS
Another set of protesters, comprising market traders, youths, and concerned citizens, converged at the Ibeju-Lekki area, displaying placards to voice their frustrations in Lagos according to Vanguard News report of Saturday, 10th February, 2024.The demonstrators voiced their disappointment on Saturday as they flooded the streets of Lagos in a peaceful protest, decrying the heightening cost of living that has challenged the nation as a result of fuel subsidy removal.
• OSOGBO, OSUN STATE
In Osun State, youths in their numbers took their turn to march peacefully in protest of the high cost of goods and services and the rising cost of living in the country.
The youths who were led in protest by leaders of Civil Society Organisations in the State on Friday in Osogbo also used the protest to call on the Federal and State Governments and other stakeholders to immediately intervene and save the country from momentary collapse. The protesters had defied the heavy presence of police operatives near the scene of the protest as they assembled along MDS Road, Osogbo very early on Friday.
Addressing the protesters who were armed with placards bearing different inscriptions such as ‘Change the unfavourable policies’, ‘Nigerians are suffering, we can’t cope again’, and ‘We are humans, Stop mistreating the Citizens’, among others; the Chairman, Osun Civil Societies Coalition, Waheed Lawal, said the protest would continue until the Federal Government thinks out solutions to the current economic hardship ravaging the country.
In his words, “Government must ameliorate the suffering of the people. They must do whatever they need to do to make sure that the people live in better conditions.
“Nigerians deserve the best. They promised us renewed hope but what they are giving us now is renewed hardship. We reject renewed hardship in our lives, and in our economy because Nigerians deserve the best.
“What Nigerians want is a peaceful atmosphere. We don’t want insecurity in our land again. We can’t travel from Osogbo to Ibadan without panicking. You will be thinking that they will kidnap you.
“The abduction of monarchs is the order of the day in our country now. We urge the government to provide security for the lives and property of the citizens. It is their responsibility, it is a constitutional responsibility.
“Every government that fails to provide security for the lives of the citizens is no longer a government. What we are saying is simple, we are ready to face the government in this hardship and we are marathon runners.
“We have started this struggle today and if the government fails to listen to us, we will continue to mobilise our people to protest this hardship because enough is enough.”
• FAGGE/UNGOGO, KANO STATE
Kano was again in the news when hundreds of residents of the ancient city on Thursday took to the streets in peaceful protest against the high cost of food items and other essential commodities in the State. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the protest was staged around Kurna, Rijiyar Lemu, Bachirawa areas along the popular Katsina road in Fagge and Ungogo Local Government Areas of the State.
The protesters decried what they described as worsening economic situation. Spokesman of the group, Malam Usman Bello of Rijiya Lemu, said that the harsh economic situation has caused untold hardships to masses across the State.
“We masses voted for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; it will not be good of him not to listen to our complaints and address the pathetic economic situation we are facing now.
“To pretend that all is well is dangerous, let those people closer to Mr President tell him the truth that the masses are suffering and dying of hunger.
“People cannot eat three square meals, even the one square meal is now becoming difficult as a bag of rice which used to go for N25,000 now attracts N70,000.”.
According to him, a bag of sugar which was sold for N8,000 now goes for N75,000.
“We want government to intervene by coming to our aid because we can no longer bear this excruciating pains, we know President Tinubu is a listening President,” he said.
• SOKOTO, SOKOTO STATE
In Sokoto State, residents of the city on Monday joined in the frenzy to protest against the high cost of living in Nigeria. PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the protesters marched from Tudun Wada area of the State capital to the front of Government House.
For now, the wave of protests have remained relatively benign and peaceful probably because the government has restrained itself from cruelly confronting the protesting citizens. But if for any reason, government decides to go confrontational with the people, the stage may just be set for a full blown mass protest that may likely not end without altering our course of history as a nation.
3.0 THE SCATHING REBUKE
In reaction to the sweeping wave of protests that have rocked the nation, the APC led administration through its spokesperson, Felix Morka issued a press statement titled, “Opposition parties instigating mass protests to undermine government”, the message reads in part:
“The protests in Minna and Kano earlier today were the manifestation of this devious and unpatriotic plot. That the protests happened simultaneously in both cities is not coincidental. It bears a bold stamp of an orchestrated and coordinated effort to instigate unrest and undermine the government.
“This mercenary opposition tactic is a clear and present threat to public peace and national security. While we recognize the right of citizens to engage in peaceful protest, we urge our good people to be vigilant and not lend themselves to the treacherous attempt by the opposition to promote social strife by its incendiary rhetoric and manipulative plots”.
However, Nigerians including supporters of the APC and President Tinubu have taken to the social media to express their malcontent over the economic hardship and rising cost of living in the country. Some have even tagged the government response to the protests as being ‘insensitive’ to the plight of Nigerians.
Below are some of the reactions of concerned Nigerians to the issue:
In his tweet, Opeoluwa wrote, “This is insensitive, Nigerians are simply angry and demonstrated it by their action today. We must not politicize everything, I warned about the citizens taking to the streets yesterday and it happened today. In every clime, it is accepted, even if the tenet is not always woven into policy, that 'the welfare of the people is the supreme law'. In Nigeria, the governing philosophy seems to be that wanton immiseration of the people/masses/poor is the supreme law. For how long are we going to push people to the wall, testing their resolve and patience? The government should read the room and stop playing the ostrich. Can’t food inflation come down in the interim? Can’t government communicate effectively? If Nigerians want to protest over rising cost of food, they should feel free, it is their enshrined right".
Another reaction came from Muhadu who said, “N700 is how I bought fuel today in Bauchi, bought a bag of rice for N65,000, this is the reality on ground, everything is getting stupidly expensive and people cannot afford it. They (ruling class) are not in touch with the masses at all”.
In her own submission, Mama Tee admonished thus; “Baba, I am core APC, don’t let us give them the chance by APC’s action. No light, a bag of rice is N76,000 where we have N30,000 as minimum wage. Let’s tell ourselves the bitter truth, you guys should think of something positive please”.
Another commentator on the ‘X’ platform, Viva Xy wrote, “It would be better that the issues that led to the protest are addressed rather than focusing on who instigated them. If the issues are addressed, the instigators wouldn’t see any loopholes to use in justifying their instigation”.
Also concerned about the response of his party to the evolving wave of protests, former National Vice Chairman, North West of the APC, Salihu Lukman wrote:
“If the truth must be told, there is hunger in the land! As a committed member of APC, it is very depressing that this is happening under the leadership of our party. Even more depressing was the statement issued by Mr. Felix Morka, our National Publicity Secretary alleging that opposition parties are behind the protests.
“How can we be talking of opposition sponsoring protests in the strongholds of the APC? Both Minna and Kano are strongholds of APC. In the case of Minna, Niger State, APC is the ruling party. Kano is the home State of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the APC National Chairman. To suggest that opposition party could mobilize citizens to protests against our government is already defeatist.
“The hard reality is that these protests are logical responses to the realities facing Nigerians. If these realities continue unattended to, these protests will spread like bush fire across every part of the country within a very short period. No one should be deceived, these are justifiable protests, which tests the responsiveness of our party, our leaders and above all our democracy. APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu may wish to ignore them at their own peril”, he added.
Out of sheer curiosity, yours truly had to hit the markets to find out the true situation of things. A cup of garri now sells for N350, a cup of beans #300 while a cup of rice now goes for #500. A piece of ice fish that used to sell for N500 is now N1,500. A bag of rice now sells for N75,000 while a bag of garri is now N65,000. A kilogram of cooking gas has now gone up to N1,300 and cement too is now selling for #8,000 a bag. Even the popular 'pure water' that used to sell for #150 per bag now goes for #300 and in some cities #500 a bag.
Tope Fasua, who is the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs also took to his facebook page to decry the high cost of commodities in the country. He said: “I did market survey today. The inflation is killing. I have informed the bosses. State Governors are getting double their FAAC. All of them are busting their budgets this year. They should please start:
1. Paying salaries, gratuities and pensions
2. Paying owed contractors
3. Urgently issuing contracts for projects with high local content e.g. roads and housing.
"Our people need to be able to survive the sky rocketing cost of living. That paint can of beans is N5k, 4 big yams for 9k. That basket of onions 3k … I haggled but I know that these guys too are just trying to survive”, he remarked.
4.0 MAY BOUAZIZI NOT HAPPEN TO US
On 17th December 2010, a 26-year-old Tunis named Mohammed Bouazizi had his vending cart and produce confiscated by the authorities, for lack of operational permit. In attempt to resist the seizure, he was severely manhandled by the police officers who were called in to contain the situation.
Worthy of note is the fact that the humiliated Bouazizi was an unemployed Tunis graduate who took to street hawking in a bid to cater for his extended family of eight, as the breadwinner. In attempt to get back his confiscated items, he approached the local municipal authority to lodge a complaint but was stoutly denied entry and audience.
Out of sheer frustration and despondency, Bouazizi returned to the city headquarters, doused in flammable liquid and set himself on fire. Almost instantly, the gory incident of self-immolation by Bouazizi sparked a spontaneous wave of protests across many cities and towns in Tunisia. The protests went on for days unend until the Tunis Dictator capitulated.
Key points to note from the Tunisian Revolution is that the uprising was caused mainly by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, repression of opposing views and poor living conditions. Out of these 5 factors, we have seen the silhouette of 4 on our political canvass while the 5th aspect, repression of opposing views appears to be in its incubation stage. Recall that recently, the Federal government has mooted the idea of coming up with a legislation to regulate the social media.
5.0 WHY THE PRESIDENT MUST CHANGE COURSE
In his first epistle to President Tinubu titled, “Six Agenda Items for Tinubu’s success”, the erudite Professor Farooq Kperogi stated: “I specifically warned Tinubu to resist the neoliberal anti-subsidy seduction of western financial institutions, which they have successfully brainwashed Nigerian Economists and Civil Society members into not just accepting but also aggressively evangelizing.
“I know that there is now an artfully manufactured consent, particularly among the gilded classes in Nigeria, about the undesirability of 'Fuel Subsidy'. I don’t care what is called, but any policy (call it deregulation, subsidy removal, appropriate pricing etc.) that results in an arbitrary and unbearable hike in the price of petrol without a corresponding increase in the salaries of workers and an improvement in the living conditions of everyday people will sink Tinubu.
“I can assure Tinubu that if petrol price hikes deepen people’s misery, he will have a tough time governing”, Prof. Kperogi noted.
Furthermore, he averred; “But it was always obvious to anyone with even a halfway functioning brain that removing petrol subsidies in a weak, oil producing economy that is organically petrol dependent, that has no well-developed public transportation system, that has weak infrastructures, and that is the poverty capital of the world would trigger infernal anguish on the vast majority of the people and tank the economy to the ground.
“These are not birth pangs. They are not the pains before the gains. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel is condemned to unrelieved darkness. The blight Nigerians are contending with now, is the certain and inevitable result of a conscious implementation of disconnected and irrelevant economic policies inspired from outside Nigeria.
“The idea that petrol subsidies had to go because they were riddled with corruption and that they consumed a disproportionate share of our national budget is a mere propagandistic cop-out. If petrol subsidy administration is rid of corruption (that is perpetrated in cahoot with the government, which explains why no ‘subsidy thief’ has ever been apprehended much less brought to justice), it would consume no greater share of our national budget than any government obligation.
“There is not a single example of a country in the world that has developed on the basis of the prescriptions of the World Bank and the IMF. On the contrary, the only countries that have achieved inclusive growth and development outside the West are precisely the countries that have bucked the World Bank and the IMF. And every country that uncritically adopts the recommendations of these institutions has been wracked by utter devastation.
In his final submission, Professor Farooq Kperogi cautioned, “Tinubu and his team need to face the reality confronting them and change course”. I know that Nigeria has been so polluted by neoliberal propaganda that even news that the government was paying subsidies through backdoor to stop petrol prices from getting to N1,000 per litre was seized upon by the opposition to pooh-pooh the government, which compelled the government to deny paying any subsidies.
“I’ve never seen this level of self-crushing inanity in my life. Assistance to the needy (which is what subsidy literally means) is now a dirty word that everyone avoids like the plague. But government should know that even hope is dying in Nigeria. When a usually hopeful nation spawns armies of hopeless and angry people through thoughtless economic policies dictated by outsiders, it sows and nurtures the seeds of its self-destruction”, Professor Kperogi maintained.
To borrow the words of Seun Okinbaloye, in his 'Final Word' exhortation to Mr. President, he said: “At a time when the heartbeat of our nation is racing with fear and the very fabric of our society is tearing at it seams, we stand at a crossroad”. Dear President Tinubu, the citizens demand that you change course. Recall that it took you over 3 decades to prepare for this all-important national assignment, Your Excellency Sir, you cannot afford to let Nigeria go the way of Venezuela, posterity will not be kind to you. The people’s hope needs to be urgently renewed and the time is now.
Comrade Jude Inyangetoh is a Public affairs analyst. He writes from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
whatsapp @ 08068240444
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