Opinion
By Tochukwu Ezukanma
THE foremost Black American leader of the 19th Century, Frederick Douglas, relevantly stated that, “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will. Therefore, to …favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation is to want crops without plowing the ground…” It is demand, vociferous, dramatized demand – which is protest and agitation – by Nigerians that will extract the concessions articulated by the #EndBadGovervance protesters from the Bola Tinubu’s administration.
In his imperviousness to the legitimate aspirations of the people, President Tinubu has, thus far, ignored these demands. Nigerians have no choice but to continue the protest, until the president heeds the demands of the people. .
In Nigeria, power has, for long, been deployed as a ruthless enemy of the people. It is wielded, at the detriment of the people, by a buccaneering oligarchy unrivalled in its looting and tearing down the country. At the economic strangulation and social degradation of the masses, the oligarchy engendered a system that panders to the arrogance, lawlessness, corruption, greed and inordinate wealth of a morally bankrupt elite. The present spearhead of this infamous oligarchy, President Tinubu, was finagled on the country by the most fraudulent election in Nigerian history; and his presidency has exacerbated all our national woes, especially, poverty and hunger.
By his parlance, actions and body language, the president demonstrates that he is in power, not to serve the people, but to amass wealth, waste public funds and luxuriate in the perks, prerogatives and pomp of his office. That undecipherable riddle, fuel subsidy, has not only remained, after its removal, but became even more puzzling. In his first day in office, he removed the fuel subsidy but has gone back to paying the subsidy. The recent payments on the subsidy are the highest, since the beginning of fuel subsidy, and paradoxically, the pump price of fuel keeps increasing.
Ironically, as the president is urging Nigerians to tighten their belts and be prepared for increased sacrifice, his administration is splurging public funds on a bewildering scale. As Nigerians vegetate in poverty and hunger, it is on a shopping frenzy. For example, at the cost of 5 billion naira, it purchased a presidential yacht, which is a novelty for no Nigerian president ever needed to frolic in a presidential yacht. The president’s latest automobile cost Nigerians N995 million (5 million naira short of 1billion naira). And at the cost of hundreds of billions of naira, it is adding more planes to the presidential fleet.
The Nigerian situation got unbearably messy because we are notoriously cowardly, docile and passive. It is high time we snapped out of our cowardice, docility and passivity, and determined to protest against the Tinubu administration’s irresponsible, extravagant and oppressive policies. Accustomed to our characteristic fright, timidity and servility, the administration seemed oblivious of our constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful protests. As such, before the earlier protest of August 1 to August 10, it was threatening fire and brimstone against the planned protest.
And, as the protest started, its institutionalized instrument of terror and repression, the Nigerian Police Force, readily opened fire on peaceful protesters. Before the protest, Nigerians expected the president, as the the personification of the country’s will, the embodiment of her resolve and the repository of the powers of her government, to address the country; and assuage the apprehension of the people, and mollify their discontent. He did not. And when, after the protest, he finally did, his speech was a hogwash. It was supercilious and insensitive; it failed to address the nagging concerns of Nigerians, especially, spiralling cost of basic necessities, especially food; depreciating purchasing power of the naira; and mass hunger.
It is therefore extremely important that the protest continues. For it is only agitation, courageous, coordinated, sustained and strategically directed agitation that will jolt this administration off its smugness, and force it to meet the demands of the generality of Nigerians, as expressed by the protesters. In the next protest, Nigerians, in their hundreds of thousands, and preferably, millions, should march peacefully to the citadels of power, Abuja and the state capitals. At Abuja, we should occupy the presidency, national assembly and Supreme Court (which has proven itself a cesspool of avarice and graft, and a veritable tool of Tinubu’s despotism and misoneism) for a protracted Sit-In.
Most likely, the Tinubu administration will resort to violence in dealing with the situation, and there will be loss of lives. The founder of modern Czechoslovakia, Thomas Masaryk, once said that “great political and social changes begin to be possible, as soon as men are not afraid to risk their lives.” So, even with the police aiming their guns, and military tanks arrayed, against this sea of unarmed and peaceful humanity, we will stand our ground; refusing to waiver in our demands, even, at the risk of loss of lives. Just as there can be no birth without blood, the protests cannot birth a new order, without blood (loss of lives).
The mainstay of Tinubu’s power is the ill-remunerated and ill-motivated security operatives. These men and women are susceptible to the hunger and poverty that suffuse the land. They are also resentful of the corruption and thievery that pervade the upper echelons of their agencies. Consequently, their morale is very low. In the earlier protest, there were footage of some of them joining in looting food and other victuals. The protest, and the attendant looting were symptoms of hunger. The manifestation of the symptom of looting among them is a prelude to the manifestation of the other symptom, protest, amongst them.
It will be superlative, if the police and other security operatives start disobeying orders to shoot at demonstrators, and join in the demonstration against the Tinubu administration. That will instantly pull the rug from under the feet of his administration. And to forestall its tumbling off its pedestal, it will inevitably concede to the demands of the Nigerian people. .
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
A.I
Aug. 24, 3024
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