It is clear that President Tinubu is not yet one year in office. It is also clear that he met gargantuan economic problems and challenges when he assumed office.
It is also clear that those challenges and economic difficulties are systemic and system wide, as such not even a genius will overcome them in four years, let alone in one year.
Therefore, any protests at this time are not only premature, they are an unnecessary distraction from the arduous task at hand. It is the informed and considered view of this column that such protests are merely attempts to play to the gallery and whip up undue sentiments that will in the long run hurt the nation and possibly lead to anarchy.
However, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has insisted that protests it scheduled for today (Tuesday) and Wednesday over mounting hunger and insecurity in Nigeria must take place. NLC President Joe Ajaero disclosed this in a statement on Sunday.
NLC And Peaceful Rallies
The NLC in the statement informed Nigerians that the State has perfected plans to attack its peaceful rallies across the country, alleging that one of the groups being primed to attack peaceful rallies goes by a ‘nebulous name,’ Nigeria Civil Society Forum (NCSF).
It claimed that NCSF is one of the emergency groups put together, funded, promoted and remote-controlled by the government to cause violence against its members for electing to peacefully protest against hunger in the land.
“We, however, remain resolute, determined and prepared to express our pain and grief in a peaceful manner as Nigerians come 27th and 28th of February 2024,” the statement reads.
It remains to be seen how effective the protest will be when many are dissociating themselves from it. The first to oppose any protest against the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu were the apex Igbo social-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide which called on Igbos particularly the youths to shun any protest against president Bola Tinubu. The Ohanaeze Ndigbo had cautioned Igbo youths against the planned nationwide protest against President Bola Tinubu-led federal government amid the hardship Nigerians are currently experiencing.
Ohanaeze’s president-general, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, warned that Igbo youths are usually arrested and prosecuted with serious charges when they join protests against the Nigerian government. “As your leader, I am directing that no Igbo group or community in Nigeria or the diaspora should join any protest against this government.”
Similarly, the national leader of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, has appealed to all Yoruba not to join any protest or rally called over the economic hardship being faced by Nigerians.
Fasoranti who urged the Yoruba race at home and in the diaspora to give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu time to address the challenges being faced by Nigerians, said the outcry over the hardship, hunger, and price hikes is not unexpected.
In a statement he personally signed, the foremost Yoruba leader, cautioned against rallies and protests which, he said may lead to disruption of social and economic activities of citizens and lead to avoidable death. Afenifere’s call was coming against the backdrop of protests over the hardship in some Yoruba towns and cities including Ibadan and parts of Northern Nigeria especially in Minna and Kano respectively.
Opposition To Protests
This column takes cognizance of the right of Nigerians to protest against any policy of the government that they believe is anti-people. The right to protest is one of the beauties of democracy. However, protesting when there is a possibility of breakdown of law and order which could led to anarchy in the land is no longer in the interest of democracy and good governance as anarchy is a state in which the end may not be too certain. We should therefore not give opportunity to anti-democratic forces to endanger our democracy with protests.
It is not as if we are not aware that President Tinubu inherited an economy that was literally destroyed by former President Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu does not possess the magic wand to turn the economy around overnight. We should know that there are economic consequences for about 30trillion Naira Ways and Means which the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ‘generously’ loaned the Buhari administration which is now under investigation by the Senate.
The Mess Buhari Left Behind
You would recall that the Senate recently resolved to probe how the N30 trillion Ways and Means loans of the Central Bank of Nigeria was obtained and spent by the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. Ways and Means for those who don’t know, is a loan facility through which the CBN finances the government’s budget shortfalls.
The senate stated that the reckless spending of the overdraft collected from the CBN under Godwin Emefiele largely accounted for the food and security crises the country was currently facing. The red chamber resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate what the N30 trillion overdraft was spent on by the immediate past government, noting that the details of the spending were deliberately not made available to the National Assembly. It remains to be seen whether anything tangible would come out of Senate’s probe, knowing the calibre of lawmakers we have today that are more concerned about acquiring the latest models of Toyota SUVs for their oversight function amid growing poverty in their constituencies and senatorial districts.
If not that we have short memories in this country, we should not have forgotten so soon how on April 7, 2021 Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State took the bold step to raise the alarm on the financial trouble confronting the country. Obaseki, during a meeting with the transition committee members at Government House in Benin City, the Edo State capital, said Nigeria was in huge financial trouble for allegedly printing money to fund shortfalls in allocations shared to states. He also expressed worry over the nation’s penchant for borrowing, noting that the debt profile could rise to N16trillion by the end of 2021. The governor, while lamenting the shortcomings, claimed that the Federal Government printed additional N50billion to N60billion to top up the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) for states to share.
“In another year or so, where will we find this money that we go to Abuja to share every month? Last month, we got FAAC for March; the Federal Government printed an additional N50 to N60 billion to top-up for us to share.
“We say remove subsidy, they say no. This April, next week again, we will go to Abuja and share. By the end of this year, the total borrowing is going to be in excess of N15 to N16 trillion.
“My worry is that we will wake up one day like Argentina, the naira will be N1,000, N2,000 and will be moving because we don’t have money coming in. You are just borrowing, borrowing and borrowing without any means or idea of how to pay back,” he said. Has what Obaseki predicted on Naira getting to N1000 not happened and with the way things are, it is no longer whether Naira will get to the level of N2000 to $1, but a question of when? It is a big problem inherited by Tinubu whose responsibility now is to clean the Augean stable, but at a huge cost for ordinary Nigerians.
Finally, Nigerians voted for a man to clean the Augean stable created by Buhari and co. He needs time. Barely nine months out of his four years tenure is not enough to address the enormous challenges he inherited. My advice to those gearing to protest is to hold on for the next three years and protest with their votes in 2027, but for now allow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to concentrate and clean the Buhari mess.
MAY NIGERIA REBOUND
