Nationwide protests: Nigerians have spoken, govt should listen – Part 2

The security personnel, particularly the police officers trained to handle civil unrest, failed to exhibit professional ingenuity in their handling of the situation in some places.  One of the eminent Nigerians who lamented the crackdown on the protesters and failure of the government to address the issue, Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, said: “Live bullets as state response to civic protest ­– that becomes the core issue. Even teargas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest. Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S, not peculiar to the Nigerian nation. They belong, indeed in a class of their own, never mind the collateral claims emblazoned on protests. They serve as summons to governance that a breaking point has been reached, and thus a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation. The tragic response to the hunger marches 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 Protests.”

The government should admit that it made mistakes and was responsible for the protests. Tinubu made a major policy decision about subsidy, obviously without preparation for the consequences. It is a sign of a bad quality of leadership. The government should come to terms with the reality. The subsidy removal could have been done in phases so that it would not be too difficult to manage the negative impact on the citizens.

Notably, when the consequences started manifesting, the government asked the people to tighten their belts without the president and his team tightening theirs. It is a failure to show a good example. This administration should stop needless spending and be serious with fighting corruption, cut down the cost of governance, create employment opportunities, launch programmes and projects to boost productivity in various sectors, particularly agriculture and make the nation’s four refineries functional to rekindle the hope of the citizens in a better Nigeria. It should not be by political statements. Nigerians should see these challenges being tackled by the government and resulting in relief for the citizens. The people are tired of promises not kept; pronouncements without action.

The government must refrain from turning the judiciary into a political organ to suppress or restrict the rights of the people. It is lamentable that some courts gave orders restricting the protest to particular locations. Has the judiciary not restricted the exercise of the freedom of expression of the citizens? Judicial officers should reject pressure from politicians to indulge in anything that will further tarnish the struggling image of the judiciary.

By the same token, the threat by the military to deal decisively with the protesters is regrettable. Part of the worry is that the military may be perceived as an enemy of the people and consequently lose the support it requires to effectively perform its constitutional responsibility of protecting the territorial integrity of the country. The inability, so far, to successfully crush the insurgents terrorising the country stares Nigeria in the face, amid complaints that Nigerians are not volunteering information needed in the task of tackling the scourge.

Rather than threatening the protesters, the government ought to have told them how it hoped to tackle the issues at stake. The disregard for decency, transparency, and accountability in governance should stop. Nigeria is a country with millions of stakeholders, not a private estate of anybody, no matter the position.

The governors are now getting higher allocations, from the centre, which are not reflecting in the well-being of their people. No recruitment into the civil service to reduce unemployment, salaries are still being delayed, most of the infrastructures are still in bad shape, inter and intra-town roads remain in terrible condition, and a lot of communities are without schools and hospitals or any form of government presence, just as pension and gratuities of ex-workers are not paid sometimes more than a decade after retirement. Thousands of them died without collecting their entitlements.

During the protest, it was observed that most of the cases of violence occurred in the northern part of the country, suggesting that there are more idle hands in the area probably because of the high number of out-of-school children. The governors should address the problem, reviving the Almajiri schools established by the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration and adequately fund them.

Attempts by some of the governors to politicise the protest, which led to violence in their domains are condemnable, making them culpable. The carrying of the Russian flag during the protest was most probably to embarrass the Nigerian government. This reinforces the call for proper monitoring of the porous borders to check the influx of foreigners into the country.

While expecting the government to address the causes of the protest, Nigerians are advised to appreciate and support the political leaders to turn around the situation of the country for the better.
Concluded