Tinubu failed to address core of people’s demands – Groups

Civil society groups in the country have stated in clear terms that President Bola Tinubu failed to address the core demands of Nigerians across the country as nationwide protests stretched to their sixth day.

This was contained in a press statement signed by eight civil society groups, namely: Accountability Lab Nigeria, BudgIT Foundation, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria, #FixPolitics, Global Rights, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), and Media Rights Agenda (MRA).

The group, in its five-demand agenda, vehemently frowned at President Tinubu’s failure to condemn the security forces’ response, which led to extrajudicial killing of several protesters, and his refusal to heed calls by Nigerians to hold perpetrators accountable.

They said, “The Nigerian government must not forget that ‘Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria, from whom government, through this Constitution, derives all its powers and authority.’ Section 14(2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Thus, it is imperative to engage citizens from the perspective of their needs within their stated demands.”

The group called for good governance, an immediate change from the downward trend in accountability and social development, while berating the Tinubu-led administration for its unimpressive response to its five demands.

On the issue of hunger, the group urged the government to reduce the cost of food with solutions like food importation, subsidised credits, and intervention in logistics and storage challenges to address hunger in the land.

In its response, the government maintained that more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens and provided incentives to farmers to increase food production at affordable prices through the distribution of fertilisers.

The federal government stressed that its target is to cultivate more than 10 million hectares of land to grow what Nigerians eat and provide all necessary incentives. Also, states have been directed to provide the land, which will put millions of Nigerians to work and further increase food production.

Additionally, the Tinubu-led administration revealed that it has ordered mechanised farming equipment such as tractors and planters worth billions of naira from the US, Belarus, and Brazil.

On the group’s demand for immediate measures to address the rising cost of living with significant reductions in the price of fuel, electricity tariffs, and import taxes, the government assured that tariffs and other import duties would be removed on rice, wheat, maize, and sorghum for the next 6 months.

The Tinubu-led administration, however, kept mum on the group’s demand for the need to curb insecurity across the country: stop the diversion of security resources (money and people) and prosecute known instigators and criminals, as well as provide a plan to resettle internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The civil society group also hinted at its fourth demand for the government to trigger a permanent 50% reduction in the running costs of the executive and National Assembly and an Implementation Plan for the Oronsaye Report to scrap agencies and reduce the size of government, which was met with a cold response from the government.

Besides, the federal government also ignored calls to scrap hardship, entertainment, and all other NASS allowances, and the immediate removal of all 7,447 projects worth N2.24 trillion inserted by the National Assembly in the 2024 federal budget. Also, the demand for transparency and prosecution of corrupt players in the oil and gas sector was ignored.

On the issue of #EndSARS, the President also failed to offer any response to the demand for the immediate release of all #EndSARS protesters, make public the #EndSARS Judicial Panel Reports, and implement recommendations, which include payment of compensations.

“Over the last few weeks, Nigerians have planned, mobilised, curated different demands, and given the government adequate notice. We recognize that citizens have taken ownership of the demand to #EndBadGovernance and have contributed to the list of demands in circulation from their pain points. As civil society groups and stakeholders in the polity, we have streamlined the demands based on consultations to midwife a peaceful and holistic engagement of issues by the government, and the table below shows how the president responded in his speech to each of the five core demands.

“The President has expressed the government’s openness to dialogue with protesters on these demands. It is therefore our candid advice that this is pursued by officials and representatives of both sides with sincerity of purpose.

“This should begin with the immediate release of all arrested peaceful protesters and sanctions against security agents who attacked unharmed peaceful protesters. We remind the government that should security forces continue to aggravate protesters, it may become difficult to broker dialogue.

“We recommend that representatives of the National Peace Committee and reputable civil society groups serve as facilitators and observers of this dialogue process and its outcomes,” the press release read.