By Lateeff Adegbite and Suleiman Umaru
With what is currently happening in Nigeria, the most populous country in the African Continent where Sowere Omoyele, a former Presidential Candidate of African Action Congress, AAC, in the last February 25, 2023, general elections and his cohorts who were said to have concluded plans to take to the streets to embark on End Bad Governance, against hunger and hardship have aid that there is going back.
There are fears making the rounds that this may turn Nigeria, the most populous country in the African Continent to another South American country of Venezuela which sits on the world’s largest oil reserves and has been one of the leading exporters of crude oil in the league, UAE, of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate and Iran, Iraq and Kuwait but has become one of the Continent’s poorest performer in terms of growth of Gross Domestic Product, GDP. Per Capita.
The situation also in the country’s health sector, was even more worrisome as its pharmaceutical Federation was said to have listed over 150 pharmaceutical products from those of High Blood Pressure , HBP, to cancer as well as basics such as prophylactics and antibiotics which were said to be in short supply in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting country, OPEC, member nation.
Political analysts had attributed the collapse of the Venezuelan economy to years of anti-democratic governance, corruption and mismanagement of the economy as currently obtained in Nigeria where people are undergoing severe economic hardship which was not from the situation in Nigeria at present.
In spite of the fact that South American country had faced the worst economic crisis ever in the history of the South American Continent, with inflation soaring, the people appears to have thrown their weight on President Nicholas Maduro, who had just won his re-election to succeed.
Indeed, with the implementation of good fiscal and monetary policies, the re-elected President Maduro, who was said to have said goodbye to the country’s rampant hyperinflation that had seen food and medicines price rises peak at more than 400,000% in 2019. At present the country’s hyperinflation level, according to Venezuelans, have been brought to a manageable level that the coast looks rosier for the people. The Venezuelan President may have taken some bold decisions to calm the restiveness in the country by increasing the country’s monthly national Minimum Wage to VES130.00.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may have taken a cue from his Venezuela Counterpart to take advantage of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, majority in the National Assembly to get the N70,000.00 new National minimum wage approved.
The next move by him analyst had said ,, is to get the Lawmakers to facilitate the re-writing of the 1999 Constitution imposed on the country’s democratically elected government by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, rtd, led military junta in May 29, 1999, with its defects.
The restoration of the battered Venezuelan economy between 2019 and now, may have emboldened Olubunmi Tuniji-Ojo, minister of Interior to speak out that the Nigerian President will address the country’s economic woes but needed to be given time to do so.
The minister, who could not hide his feelings had urged Nigerians not judge the present government with the expectation ‘’to solve a 30- 60 year- old economic problem in one year. He had said that the former Lagos state governor could not have been a magician t rebuild the country’s battered economy which is a fallout of mismanagement by past Administrations barely one year in office.
He noted that the Nigerian President during the electioneering Campaign in between late 2022 and early 2023, ’’ never campaigned ‘’to be a magician but campaigned as a statesman on the basis of renewed hope‘’. The Oyo state born politician had said that the t country’s economy which had witnessed prices of food and other basic commodities like medicines gone through the rooftop in the last one year as Nigerians battle one of the nation’s worst inflation rates had shown signs of rebounding back.
The Ondo state born politician had admitted that the country’s present economic crisis was parked by the government’s hasty implementation of the twin economic policies of removal of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, petrol subsidy and unification of the country’s official and parallel, popular, black market forex windows.
Describing the petrol subsidy as cancer which ha eaten deep into the fabrics of he nation’s economy, and needed to be removed as a bold decision, , noting that after the country has gone through this surgical process ,’’ it will emerge economically healthier and stronger’’ in the next two to three years. Current
He was emphatic that President Tinubu means well for the nation going by the bold the bold economic decisions he ha taken over the last one he ha be office , particular the removal of petrol subsidy insisting that ‘’the country is on the right step’’.
This may have informed why he had said that planned End Bad Governance against hunger and hardship protest across the 36 states of the Federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, which has Nyesom Wike, immediate past governor of Rivers state as the minister, on August 1, 2024, was not necessary as it will draw the hand of the clock back.
Appealing to the organizers of the planned August 1, 2024, protest ‘’to explore all the avenues of engagement and dialogue before taking to the streets’, he noted that it is the only way the public would see them as being patriotic.
While the; Nigerian Government are battling the twin problem of petrol scarcity in different parts of the country and the planned End Bad Governance against hunger and hardship, the Islamic Fundamentalist Group, BokoHaram, and the Islamic Fundamentalis State of West African Province, ISWAP, have ntensified their operations in the north eastern states of Borno and Yobe.
On some Bok Sunday, July 28, 2024, suspected oHaram fighters had attacked Jakana police station, located some 35Km along Maiduguri – Damaturu, road in Konguga Local Government Area of Borno state , allegedly kiliing one police officer and a woman. Note that Jakana Community has been a pathway for the insurgents and has remained so till date.
The situation is not different from what is happening in Katsina, home state of former President Muhammadu Bhari, Kaduna, Zamfara , Sokoto and kebbi states, where the Bandits Group, are making life unbearable for the people. The criminal elements , who had turned themselves to economic saboteurs, were said to set ablaze two patrol vehicle and a motor cycle belonging to the police and the civilian Joint Task Force. They were said to have also carted away some guns and cartridges from the station.
Worried that the protest might be bloody in Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokototo, and Niger, home state of former President Ibrahim Babangida, a retired Army General and former Nigerian military President because of fears of the infiltration of the crowd by terrorists, and other states of the Federation by hoodlums, may have informed why Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, Chairman, Amnesty International in Nigeria, has asked the government to protect the protest to avoid a situation whereby the criminal element would take advantage of the situation to kill, destroy public and private property.
He was emphatic that the government must protest the protest itself because of ‘’it is part of the democratic tenet’’. Rafsanjani, Amnesty International boss I Nigeria, had said the Nigerian President has no reason to protect the planned August 1, protest as a democrat and somebody who had participated in such protests in the past and knows the value and importance.
He fears that utterances by hired people who are determined to see Nigeria thrown into crisis might bring religious connotation into the protest to polarize the country.
Meawhile . Tahir Mamman, minister of Education, has advised students in tertiary institutions to remain on campus during the planned nation-wide protest, dubbed by the promoters as End Bad Governance against hunger and hardship to avoid risking their lives.
Chris Mayaiyaki, Secretary to the Nigerian Universities Commission, NUC, was said to have also drawn the attention of the Vice Chancellors of the various Universities across the country, both state and Federal, of the plan by the unknown groups to embark on nation wide protest.
The NUC, Secretary was said to have enjoined the University Chancellors ‘’to ensure the security and safety of the University Community, including staff and students’’.
