The 10-day protest against bad governance which commenced on Thursday, August 1, 2024, is proving to be about the most effective demonstration by the populace against political actors in recent history.

The only rage against the government that compares with it may be the demonstrations against military rule, notably the Anti-SAP riots and then the June 12 demonstrations to affirm the election of Chief Moshood Abiola as president of Nigeria.

Remarkably, one of the leading protesting political practitioners at that time, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has now become the object of political discontent, being the incumbent president of the country. 

Senator Shehu Sani, a veteran of many pro-democracy struggles himself confessed it not too long ago that Tinubu was the financier and godfather of many protests that were staged to enthrone democracy.

Even after the enthronement of democracy, the protest blood continued to flow in Tinubu culminating in his frontline role in the anti-fuel price hike of 2012.

However, the protest that confronted Tinubu last Thursday would be said to be unprecedented in the annals of the Fourth Republic. 

For a government that came to power with less than a majority of the votes, it spells a serious problem for him that the whole country rose in near unison against the administration.

In the past, protests, riots, and such were mostly undermined by the political, ethnic, and religious sentiments that divide the country.

However, this time, the administration through its hunger-inflicting policies was able to galvanize all sentiments in the country in unison against it.

 One of the most poignant demonstrations was the case in Jos, Plateau State, where Christians formed a ring around their Muslim colleagues while they were observing afternoon prayers.

Tinubu with his accolades as the financier and facilitator of several successful protests would have been shaken by the extent to which Nigerians came out in disapproval of his policies.

The vengeance of the protesters this week can easily be contrasted with the relative ease of things when Tinubu demonstrated against Jonathan in 2012.

At that time fuel prices were hiked by the Goodluck Jonathan administration from about N87 per litre to more than N140. It was a hike that Tinubu and other opposition forces at that time lamented as the wickedness of the administration and the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

However, under his watch as president, the same product has jumped more than 400% with price ranging anything from N617 to as much as N850 officially at the pump stations in Abuja.

That is only part of the story of the hardship that Nigerians have had to endure. But it is at the root of the crisis that is now bedeviling the country with the most existential risk to our country’s democracy.

The administration’s ill-advised decision to withdraw petrol subsidy which the president and some of his handlers initially hailed as a matter of courage has now come to hunt him.

The decision was pre-empted by what many political actors have repeatedly alleged as the corruption in the oil subsidy regime.

This correspondent, however, submits that the failure of successive administrations to frontally confront that corruption is rather the bane of the crisis.

As minister of petroleum, the president owes himself the duty of using his full powers to cleanse the sector. However, it is unfortunate that the same song of oil subsidy fraud has continued to be sung as if it is impossible to uproot it.

It is more unfortunate that the administration in Nigeria has continued to tie itself to the apron strings of the Bretton Woods institutions whose policies have over time been seen to be unfavourable to Africa and the Third World.

These institutions frown at the disposal of subsidies in Africa but close their eyes to the mobilisaiton of subsidies in Europe, America, and Japan.

Farmers in Japan and South Korea are for example the most pampered farmers in the world given that they enjoy the highest level of subsidy in the world.

The European Union also devotes a high chunk of its annual budget towards farm and energy subsidies. So, the argument that subsidy is anathema to even capitalism does not hold.

What the government needs to do is to manage the subsidy to ensure that it turns into a competitive advantage for the country in the broader economy.

The argument that subsidy will benefit Nigeria’s neighbours does not arise so long as we still have effective Customs and border control agencies. If they do not perform and there is leakage, then the officers involved should be fired.

It may be a sort of consolation for Tinubu that Nigerians were not focused on him alone, but on the political class including his APC members and the opposition in the PDP where they hold offices in the states.

Nigerians today are despiteful of both APC and PDP because when it comes to the mismanagement of the economy, that with very few exceptions almost all political actors behave the same. What Nigerians demand of them today is to repent and perhaps we will forgive them.

“Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do except hear” – King Jordan, first deaf President of Gallaudet University, 1988

By the time you read this article, at least two protests would have been underway in response to pervasive hunger and hardship nationwide. Ironically, those protesting against the Federal Government issued the first threat and threw all governments – FG and states – into a panic. Efforts to dissuade the organisers proved abortive. All the well-fed people in positions of power – the Presidency, the National Assembly, Governors, Ministers, Traditional Rulers, Religious leaders, leaders of the Organised Private Sector, leading journalists and public opinion moulders etc – have been called to Aso Rock for deliberations with Tinubu.

The meetings, most probably, have included lunches featuring the best food money can buy in Nigeria today. In exchange, they have expressed gratitude by calling on the organisers of the planned protest to forget the entire idea because “Tinubu has the best interest of Nigeria at heart”, “the protest might be hijacked by hoodlums and become violent”, “protesters should embrace dialogue”, “offer constructive criticism instead of fomenting trouble which will destroy all the good works Tinubu has been doing” and, “remember that Tinubu inherited an economy totally ruined by his successor.” 

“Love, and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man is starving” – O Henry, 1862-1910, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 232.

To listen to and read all the statements from Nigerian leaders, one would come away with the impression that their views represent the feelings of their people. In reality, nothing can be further from the truth. The fact is; no traditional ruler or religious leader, well-fed, can now claim to speak for millions of his followers now starving to death everyday. Leaders of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, IECF, ASUU, SANU etc – had told their followers not to join the protest – for various reasons informed by self-interest.

If you take a look at the short list again, something very familiar would hit you. The same groups, under different leaderships, backed out of the protests against Abacha in 1994. They sent their ‘First elevens’ to Abacha’s Constitutional Conference, CONFAB; which only real leaders of the South-West boycotted. I called the CONFAB ‘A Ship of Fools’ – which it turned out to be. Now, as then, the leaders went in droves to Aso Rock to express solidarity with Abacha and to advise the protesters – including me – to embrace dialogue, to engage in constructive criticism. History has already recorded that what the protesters wanted was good governance – not worthless dialogue.

“Bandits occupy 102 Zamfara communities; shut down farming” – Report, July 30, 2024.

One thing is certain; irrespective of who joins or remains on the sidelines, pervasive hunger, allied with insecurity, scarcity of everything and rising inflation, will remain the dominant factors in the Nigerian economy for more than two years. Low crude oil production and export has emerged as the major limiting variable impeding economic development and progress; and inducing more borrowing by the FG. There is no sign that high level corruption has abated; and governments, at all levels, have done very little to curb waste. Consequently, hunger will remain a problem for some years. This is a fact that Nigerians, like Biblical Egyptians, must be prepared to live with. This calamity might last seven years – no matter whether protest holds or not. Those loudly proclaiming participation, as well as those disclaiming will all suffer. Neither the leaders of the protest nor those opposed to it can stop millions of stomach from grumbling; and anger from erupting frequently as a result.

MY ADVICE TO BOTH SIDES

“Who takes advice shall never fare the worse” – Geoffrey Chaucer, 1342-1400

Right now, the protesters and their supporters, as well as governments and their praise-singers are like two groups of deaf people shouting at each other. I cannot remember any advice, given on this page, which the governments and opponents involved in desperate combat have followed. I also cannot recollect any instance when the choices made by those in power had not created a worse problem later on. But, giving advice is part of the responsibilities of an opinion maker. We have the luxury, like spectators in a tournament, of seeing more than the players. Furthermore, some of us have been on the beat for so long, we can easily spot recurrent errors of judgment which inevitably are counter-productive.

Palliatives provide the perfect example. Among the lucky recipients of palliatives early in the year in Lagos was Mrs X – mother of twins and three other kids. No father. For days after collecting her share, Tinubu was God. She was full of praises for and maledictions for anybody who spoke ill of ‘Emilokan’. Today, the rice has long been exhausted and she has since joined the rest of us. On the eve of the protest, she was heard loud and clear, supporting it. The truth is; palliatives, as currently conceived, are totally useless. The stomach is a rascal; it forgets by evening time how well it was fed at breakfast time.

The only solution is to shorten the time between now and when poor Nigerians will feed twice a day again. First, the protesters would be best advised to limit the programme to two or three days. Beyond that, only the well-fed will be able to continue. They need to do this because there is very little governments can do in the short-term to bring down prices of food significantly. Zamfara’s sad situation is not an isolated case. Several thousand rural farming communities, particularly in the North, have ceased farming on account of banditry. Communities on the borders of Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi have been under siege for years. The same is true of Borno, Niger, Plateau and Benue states.

There is a direct correlation between scarcity of food and scarcity of farmers everywhere. FG can’t perform magic. Second, the FG should stop receiving all the free-loaders called traditional rulers and religious leaders. Instead, Tinubu should address the Nigerian people; lay the facts before them and present an achievable recovery programme. Among other things, he should let Nigerians realise that the FG owns only land in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

Given the Land Use Decree of 1978, which vests all lands in state governments, food production is actually a matter for state governments to manage. Most southern states had out-sourced this responsibility to the North and foreigners producing rice, wheat, maize for our consumption. Commissioners for Agriculture in virtually all southern states are ‘Ghost Commissioners’. None of them is held to any specific target of food output – which should form the basis for evaluation of his/her performance.

The sooner we turn the heat on state governors, the better for us. They own the land; they should produce the food.

URBAN FOOD WARRIORS TO THE RESCUE

“An activist is not the person who says the room is dirty. A real activist is the person who cleans up the room” – Gamaliel Onosode, 1933-2015

Permit me to join the protest my own way by offering one solution which I strongly believe will provide relief in the short-run and permanently. Right now, the quickest way to increase food production incrementally is to start with about 100,000 Urban Food Warriors and increase the number until we reach about five million. Unlike rural communities, no bandits can come to our backyards and balconies and uproot tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and vegetables. We can produce more food quickly; and there is a template for execution of the idea. As far as I am concerned, the protesters should gather for no more than three days; have their say and go home. Very little will be achieved after that. Government and the security agencies should provide adequate protection for all stakeholders and let us prove to the world that a mature democracy is evolving. I would have been there; but for my health challenges.
LOSING LOVED ONES AND LOSING MONEY

“Undertakers are the only people who love corpses. For them, that is food on the table” – Late Mr Frazier, Undertaker, Melrose, Massachusetts, USA, 1968

Mr Frazier and his family were the only black family in Melrose in the 1960s. I met them through Mr and Mrs Aimo of 78, Whitman Avenue. The Fraziers were welcomed in the all-white community because the couple did the work nobody else wanted – they dressed dead bodies. That statement was uttered a few days after Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated. But, before then, I had spent a few evening in their professional parlour – where I learnt, without being told, that the easiest people to dupe are those mourning. Most people worldwide spend more for coffins and caskets than they need to. I just discovered recently how global Mr Frazier’s words were here in Nigeria. Nigerians are being scalped by coffin/casket sellers. Given the hardship in Nigeria now, it might be in your best interest to seek expert advice before going to price the coffin/casket for your loved ones. One family saved N500, 000 on just one box!!!

Read the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS online; any time, anywhere and for very little.

At the end of the first day of what protesters titled #EndBadGovernance, I had expected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address the protesters and encourage them to get off the streets. Still staying away from them some two days after, greatly surprised me. I developed more worries when the media became replete with reports of calls by different people urging the president to speak to the protesters. If his aides had convinced him to say nothing because they imagined that the protests were politically motivated, I had hoped that calls by non-partisan groups such as the ‘Coalition of Pro-Democracy Groups for A Better Nigeria’would make the president to have a rethink and act quickly. 

One of the civil society groups, ActionAidNigeria probably spoke the minds of many when it argued that ‘in the face of widespread protests and rising public discontent, it would be disheartening for President Tinubu to remain in the background, sending spokespersons to address the nation on his behalf.’ The implication of ignoring such groups was that Tinubu was inadvertently telling the nation that the previous impression that he was a listening president was inaccurate. Whereas it is true that the president had much earlier assured the nation that the long-term benefits of his reform agenda outweigh their initial pains, it is exceedingly difficult to be patient with inescapable hunger. In such circumstances, previous pleas cannot easily justify current silence. This is why in public communication, there is merit in saying the same thing many times with fresh gestures.

Besides, communication officials in the cabinet had a duty to explain to the president and other officials that not everyone comprehends certain statements at the same time or in the same way. Some people are victims of selective hearing because what they choose to understand from a statement is usually the part of the message which confirms their own predisposition. In fact, to say that the gains of a reform would soon overcome the pains is difficult to appreciate by those who understand the term ‘soon’ to mean soonest or shortly or within an hour or thereabout. When soon means until when a citizen no longer has any source of livelihood, it is unfair to expect such a citizen to remain patient in grave hunger. Otherwise, what would sustain such patience and dissuade the hungry from protests or even riots?

It is also unrealistic to believe that everyone has the capacity to understand the real meaning of a statement. Those who think so erroneously assume that the process of communication is complete as soon a message is passed from one source to another. But in reality, it is hardly ever so without a feedback mechanism which confirms that the receiver understood the full meaning of the message passed by a sender. 

When related to President Tinubu’s reform agenda, there is ample doubt if many heard what he said and if everyone among those who supposedly heard actually understood it. In Nigeria, it is more difficult to ascertain the tendency of spokespersons to disseminate information to citizens in King’s English rather than the local language the people understand.

This was what the military had in mind when they established a modern town crier, the National Orientation Agency NOA in 1993 to publicize government activities in the different states and local government areas to the understanding of citizens. As at today, because NOA is not properly funded, it exists only to pay salaries to workers. Structures and facilities for performing the functions for which it was set up have become obsolete. Which other framework does government have to mobilize and enlighten Nigerians on government policies? At inception, one strategic mandate of the Agency was to prepare a weekly report to sensitize the government on the reactions of the people to public policy. In the last decade or so, even the government lost interest in the reports, making it difficult to obtain the correct reaction of citizens to Tinubu’s current reform agenda.

The point to be made is that Nigeria’s public communication system has become ineffectual. Apart from Information Minister Mohammed Idris and Presidential Media Adviser, Ajuri Ngelale whose conciliatory diction is no doubt good for government, too many other people who are generally intemperate are busy derogating from the credibility of government. For example, the anti-Igbo sentiments which were deprecated during elections have no place during governance. Although the statement credited to the senate president that those who want to protest can continue while the rich is eating has been denied, it may have exacerbated the protests which is not helpful to the polity.

The argument that the protests are political is not as convincing as the reality that many protesters are more bothered about the unaffordable costs of living in the country. As Governor Uba Sani stated in his reactions to the protests in the Northern part of the country, 70 percent of Northerners live below poverty line while 60 percent are financially excluded. The governor added that of the 18.3 million out of school children in Nigeria,65 percent live in the North hence the protests were more patronized there. In other words, the greatest motivation for protests in the North was economic. President Tinubu needs to listen to Uba Sani who is anxious that the cost of governance should be substantially reduced to boost the economy

While a few people may have joined the protest because of political differences, some factors such as ethnicity and religion that usually influenced negative gatherings in Nigeria appear absent this time around.

At the Ojota protest ground in Lagos last Friday, Muslim faithful participating in the ongoing nationwide protest paused their demonstrations to observe the Jumaat prayers. Social media, photojournalists did not miss the beautiful opportunity to project shots showing how their Christians colleagues were standing guard while Muslim faithful observed the prayer. The report established beyond reasonable doubt that the two religious groups were united in the protest against spiralling inflation and poverty.

At the end of the 2023 elections, Tinubu became president of the nation and not that of one political party. Consequently, those party supporters making statements that elicit hate for his government should be called to order. At the same time, those who do not have the authority of the presidency should stop making statements on behalf of the president. If the decision of President Tinubu to ignore the protesters was influenced by party chieftains, our considered opinion is that the president should rise above the approach. What is needed now is for Tinubu to address the protesters so that the protests can be put behind us. As a matter of fact, some of them told the media in Abuja two days ago that it is only the president’s address that can take them away from the streets.

The fear that the President may not have what it takes to change the minds of protesters cannot be a strong one considering how he handled the fiery issue of the new minimum wage and got the Nigerian Labour Congress and governors to stay on the same page. The idea of the president listening to calls to address the protesters could make some of them drop their anger without evening getting a full grip of the expected address. In addition, nothing stops Tinubu from letting the target group recognize that it is easier and cheaper to conclude the reform agenda than to scuttle the journey half way. It would also not be too much for him to set up a committee that would include some of the protesters to recommend how to fast forward the reforms.

The last few days of protests and the negative effect on our economy and international image ought to put Tinubu in a different posture to reduce the size of his bloated government. It should push him to persuade the senate to emulate the House of Representatives by giving up a substantial portion of their huge emoluments and stop their commercialized oversight. An agreement by all our leaders to lead by example will help to make the entire nation see the need for everyone to be patriotic. For example, leaders should stop diverting palliatives away from the vulnerable for which they are meant. By some sheer luck, the protest may open the way for positive dividends to the nation.

May the souls that took their untimely exit during the last #EndBadGovernance protest find sweet repose and may the contradictions that predisposed us to tolerating depopulation as an acceptable handmaid of public protests be exorcised from our psyche. As predicted, after the first day of protests by the sons and daughters of the land, we counted the surviving warriors. A yet indeterminate number is missing. They will not witness the mythical Eldorado we are all looking forward to tomorrow.

Market Route

I learnt early in life that many footpaths lead to the market. Whichever direction you’re coming from, the market is always central in relation to the village. In the same vein, there is no single route to success in any endeavour, especially in the political sphere. If the politician’s goal is to win the trust of rivals and outright foes, even if only grudgingly, his toolbox can’t consist mainly of barbs and sticks; it must also have plenty of roses and carrots.

If we haven’t learnt anything from the #EndBadGovernance protest, then those who died have died in vain. The destruction of public properties and the social dislocation caused in many parts of the country may need to happen again with more ghastly consequences before we become wiser. But as rational beings, we can chart a different path. After all, the planet is pork-marked with erstwhile popular footpaths abandoned in favour of newer ones to meet the exigencies of the times.

In the changing sands of modern times, it is no longer considered smart to meet every novel suggestion with the stock answer — “This is how we are used to doing the job”. The contemporary wisdom is to seek newer, smarter ways of tackling old problems, more so as the analogue ways of yore are unlikely to be any match for today’s digital challenges.

Translated into the vernacular of old fashioned politics, the opposition is usually characterised as enemies of the ruling party and the state itself. Subscribing to different political philosophies is cast as a choice between heaven and hell. All the members of one’s own party are saints; the opposition is made up of demons and enemies of state.

Because shamelessness comes with the territory, politicians can’t be bothered by the contradictions inherent in the way they routinely decamp from one party to the other. As soon as they announce their change of ship, they start unsaying all the terrible things they had said about their new political homestead. Their old foes suddenly become family.

Their fanatical followers, rendered more brainless by economic flagellation, simply follow their masters to the new camp. No questions asked. Just memorise the new slogans. Old things have passed away; welcome to our new political home. Amen. And their former party, former family, becomes the coven of political witches and wizards who don’t mean well for the state or country.
We have played enough games in this country. For our collective sakes, I think it is about time we did things differently. By this, I mean that we cannot continue relying on the same old footpaths to take us to the market of political cohesion when there are shorter routes that are guaranteed to take us there more quickly.

New Footpath

Nigeria’s problems require the input and commitment of ALL stakeholders, not just the ruling political party. Bear in mind that the last presidential election was unique in the sense that it was a three-horse race with the winner securing a little more than one-third of the total number of votes cast. President Tinubu scored 8,794,726 against a total of 14,582,740 scored by his three major opponents, Atiku, Obi and Kwankwaso. It would make sense to reach out to those major opponents, especially Atiku and Obi.

The president can borrow a fairly used idea from the era of Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency. One of the fora purposely created for reaching out to political opponents and pressure groups was the Presidential Breakfast Table where the wily general tapped the brains of his foes, friends and sectoral experts. Being invited to the president’s breakfast table was considered an honour and many prominent politicians relished the privilege.

Now, imagine the president inviting Mr. Peter Obi, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and some of the more visible economic experts and technocrats to the presidential breakfast table. Usually, some policy statements will seep out of the gathering after the intellectual intercourse. Party chieftains, too, will seize the opportunity to show that they are part of the new spirit of reaching out. In effect, such a move will help to douse the political tension in the land.

The alternative is the current default position which the current administration inherited from Buhari’s unfeeling government which established the template of hiring thugs to disrupt protests. To make matters worse, his idea of the presidency was a kind of royal court where he was the ultimate ‘Kabiyesi’ and everyone else was a political serf or vassal. That informed why he merely reigned while his henchmen ruled/ruined the roost.

Tinubu is more exposed and better educated than Buhari. He is also a politician while his predecessor was more of a cult figure. Tinubu knows what to do to defuse the political tension in the land. The surprise is why he hasn’t done it all these days. it is about time that the president took direct control of the narrative going forward. As the intriguing TV advert says, “Draw your friends close; and your enemies closer!” Except that there are really no enemies in this case.

Shagari’s Example

I remember that during the Second Republic, the rivalry between Awolowo’s UPN and Shagari’s NPN was fierce. But Shagari had the benefit of the political ‘wiseness’ of his party chairman, Chief A.M.A. Akinloye (a.k.a. Always Mentally Alert). Those were the days when party supremacy had a meaning. The party and the president agreed that they needed to have Chief Awolowo on their side, especially as he was reputed to be an economic wizard of sorts.

Perhaps he would share some of his wisdom with them? And perhaps his followers would now give Shagari a breathing space? Shagari invited Awo to take a trip with him in the presidential jet and later decorated the leader of the major opposition party with Nigeria’s highest national honour, Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR). If Shagari could do that 42 years ago, I have no doubt that Tinubu can match the spirit of the gesture in terms of how he relates with political opponents.

When political apparatchiks are allowed to build a cult around the president and turn him to a ‘Kabiyesi’, they (whoever they are and whatever designation they are identified by) become the real McCoy because while the president is reduced to a hermit who shows up only for major ceremonial occasions, they, the aides, assume control. From what we know about President Tinubu, he is not the type of person who would drive a car from the back seat.

There are many pathways that lead to the marketplace of political engineering. The president should choose the less travelled one of statesmanship in which opponents are treated as fellow shareholders in the Nigerian commonwealth. I’m tired of Nigerian presidents showing so much promise and then failing spectacularly.

I want Tinubu to succeed. If he succeeds, there are chances that Nigerians shall have life more abundant. But to succeed, he must remember that he who walks alone is both in front and behind.

Visit any of our institutions of higher learning and you begin to see toddler-undergraduates all over the place! Boys and girls who should still be in SS1 are already preparing to graduate! Merely looking at them testifies to the fact that they lack the much-needed maturity. They may pass through the university but will the university pass through them? At the tender age that many of these boys and girls gain admission into institutions of higher learning, do they - can they - have a true understanding of the real essence of higher education?

Is that not one of the reasons why we see hordes of university graduates clutching certificates that are more worthless than the paper on which they are printed? We need to conduct a census to know what percentage of our undergraduates are under-aged. They may still be in the minority but their number is growing - and rapidly, too. Our law stipulates 18 years as the minimum age for admission into institutions of higher learning. Many of our universities admit younger candidates, some as young as 14 years! By the time they clock the stipulated admission age of 18 years, they are already graduates! The private universities are the worst hit here.

At the recently-concluded Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB’s) 2024 policy/stakeholders’ meeting held in Abuja, this vexed issue reared its ugly head again. The Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, started the controversy as he read the Riot Act to the gathering of vice-chancellors, rectors, and provosts of the country’s institutions of higher learning. Anyone who engages in illegal admission would be sanctioned, he said. And it is illegal to give admission to under-aged candidates because the law stipulates a minimum of 18 years of age as one of the requirements for admission.

Mamman explained that under-aged candidates given admission are flung into forced maturity at a tender age - and this is disallowed because of its dire consequences on the candidates. Nature, he said, has a way of catching up with such students. Any attempt to circumvent the law will be met with appropriate sanctions, he reiterated. “Only those who have attained the age of 18 years qualify to be given admission. That is our law. JAMB is to admit only those who have attained the age of 18 years,” he said for emphasis.

Widespread murmurs of disapproval greeted the Minister’s submission. To the high table’s shout of “Are we together?” the expansive hall of the Body of Benchers venue of the meeting erupted into screams of “No, no, no!” It took some time before order was restored. Unfazed, Mamman told the egg-heads he was surprised that those who were supposed to enforce the law were the very ones shouting “No, No, No!”. “This is the law and we are going to enforce it. If you want underage children to be admitted, go to the National Assembly and amend the law. Fortunately, we have members of the National Assembly here.”

All now quiet, Mamman went on to disclose that a new curriculum for our secondary schools was in the works, which would incorporate skill acquisition. In a veiled warning to Governing Councils that abuse their offices and see the institutions they preside over as cash cows, he said procurement as well as appointment of principal officers must be conducted under the ambit of the law. He encouraged the school management to cultivate good relationships with the Unions. “Engage them; we have adopted that method in the past one year and it works,” he said. He canvassed transparency and openness and the need to keep the channels of communication open at all times. He also emphasized the importance of having peace on our campuses.

The business of the day progressed smoothly for some hours until the issue of underage admissions was raised again by the Vice-Chancellor of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State; he had wanted to know the fate of underage candidates that have been allowed to write the last JAMB examinations. Do they now stand disqualified? The Minister, JAMB's Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, and a few other dignitaries on the high table conversed. Thinking aloud, Oloyede mooted the idea whether the implementation of the 18-year benchmark be waived for the current admissions, and be made effective as from next year. The minister said he could work with that for the sake of building a consensus; otherwise, the argument advanced would not stand because ignorance of the law is not an excuse. The Minister is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

I have said it before that I am in support of the 18-year minimum age requirement for admission into our institutions of higher learning. I have also canvassed that school-going age should not be less than six years for any child. It was possible in my own days but to implement such these days requires planning and provision of the needed infrastructure. Rural-urban migration has changed the face of our society. Many parents today are working class and must necessarily keep their children in creches and nursery schools at tender ages. When kids start schooling so early, they will also complete their secondary school education very early; at 15, 16 or even earlier. Will they be consigned to sitting at home doing nothing? In those days, there used to be Modern School, Teacher Training College, Higher School Certificate or Sixth Form (Advanced Level); no more!

The government must study how the Chinese and Japanese engage their own children in productive ventures before attaining school-going age of six years. If we also do that here and our children start Primary School at age six, they will be 18 years or thereabout by the time they are through with secondary school education. But to whimsically slam the law of 18-year minimum age without thinking the policy through and putting the necessary infrastructure in place will not achieve the desired results. When we make laws that are impossible to enforce, we encourage criminality.

Can we also ask whether our leaders who make these laws subject their own children, many of whom study abroad, to the jurisdiction of the same or similar age-limit laws? These days, employers set ridiculous age limits for the recruitment of graduates into their employment. Except they enter university as under-aged, there is no way many of today’s graduates can scale the barricade of age limit set by employers of labour. What is the government going to do about that?

JAMB’s Registrar, Oloyede, is into his second term of office. He will be sorely missed by everyone when he quits office not only because of the quantum of work he has put in and the extraordinary improvement he has brought to our university admissions system but also for his candour and sense of humour. He has an uncanny way of stepping on toes without attracting malice. There are no dull moments with him. Advising the provosts of colleges of education to sit together and not scatter themselves all over the hall, Oloyede told them: “You know you are an endangered species!”

There was laughter but the JAMB's Registrar had passed a very important, even if unfortunate, message. Candidates are shunning the colleges of education - and the polytechnics, if I may add - with all attention focused on the universities. The dichotomy between university degree, polytechnic diplomas and college of education certificates has not been adequately addressed. Oloyede advocated that incentives be given to attract candidates into those “endangered” institutions of higher learning. The disparity in remunerations and career advancement between university graduates and non-university graduates should also be removed. When many hands were raised to second a motion, Oloyede sighted one of such hands and said: “I can see a light-complexioned lady raising up her hand. I am a mallam but I am not blind!” Perhaps, a reference to the lady’s good looks!

The disruption caused to the university system by the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ last strike action continues to take its toll. There are three streams of university academic calendar: 2021/2022; 2022/2023, and 2023/2024. The private universities are the only ones up-to-date with their academic calendar. What this means is that the government must bend over backward to avert any new industrial action by ASUU. It also means that students already admitted and who have accepted the admission cannot resume but are just marking time at home.

Time to wield the big stick and Oloyede reminded everyone that JAMB’s name is not only about “admissions” but its mandate also encompasses overseeing the matriculation of students. Schools must give JAMB at least two weeks' notice to witness their matriculation ceremonies. Penalties for defaulters are steep: They will not be eligible for the JAMB-organized award of excellence; there will be no NYSC for candidates not properly matriculated; and there will also be no cover for them with foreign institutions.

The more JAMB blocks one examination malpractice loophole, the more other ingenious methods rear their ugly head. Candidates, their parents, CBT centres, admissions contractors, unscrupulous JAMB staff, the institutions of higher learning themselves were severally indicted by Oloyede. The good news, however, is that JAMB’s robust CAPS admissions system and cutting edge technology remain a hard nut to crack for fraudsters. And whenever any infraction is brought to Oloyede’s notice, he ensures that justice is done, and promptly too, regardless of whose ox is gored.

To avoid writing post-UTME, candidates now travel abroad days or weeks before the examination date to write the exam. To stem the tide, the new regulation stipulates that such candidates must have been in the foreign country for at least six months before the date of the examination. A growing number of candidates who fail to turn up for exams now claim they were kidnapped! Oloyede would mention the infractions and the culprits, even when they are heads of institutions, but on one occasion he sought the indulgence of everyone “to keep our secrets, secret!” But, usually, penalties imposed on infractions would be disclosed. Illegal admissions by the institutions, admission of underage candidates, selective uploading of post-UTME results to favour some at the expense of more qualified candidates were some of the infractions that Oloyede frowned at.

With many candidates shunning Education and Agriculture courses while running after the limited vacancies available in Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Engineering, Accountancy, etc, Oloyede advocated that scholarships be used to entice candidates into those “endangered” courses or else, we shall continue to encounter problems in our admissions process, the Students’ Loan recently introduced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, laudable as it is, notwithstanding.

The JAMB boss corrected the erroneous impression that there is anything called “cut-off” mark but “minimum tolerable score”; which means that no one with scores below it will be admitted. It does not mean that everyone with that score and above will be admitted. Again, the course intended and the carrying capacity of the institution concerned will come into play. The total scores of a candidate include WAEC score, JAMB score and post-UTME score, where applicable. This year’s “minimum tolerable score” for the universities was set at 140 and 100 for polytechnics, colleges of education, etc. No candidate with less than two points will be taken for Direct Entry admission into the universities.

The term used to describe the “disabled” keeps evolving; they are no longer referred to as “disabled” or “physically-challenged” but are now to be known and called “differently-abled” persons. In his characteristic candour, Oloyede had informed that everyone should give "differently-abled" persons some respect because every able-bodied person is a potential member of the group of differently-abled persons; to which someone seated close to me snapped her fingers over her head and said, “God forbid!”

There you have it. The “hunger protest” that took off in most parts of the country on Wednesday has predictably led to burning, looting and killing. In one instance, demonstrators tried to overrun a government house. A man was seen vandalising traffic lights to — wait for this — “end bad governance”. Unfortunately, at least a dozen deaths have been reported. The police are now saying if they are overwhelmed, the military will have to come in. Anybody who is familiar with the history of military involvement in civil conflicts will not be excited by such prospects. I am already fidgeting because it never ends well. But this begs the question: don’t the people have a right to protest?

Sure, they do. As I argued in my previous article, it is a democratic right. It is constitutionally guaranteed. But, as I also warned, political hijack is inevitable. It is quite predictable. Nigeria is so polarised at the moment that virtually anything is prone to political hijack. There are people still smarting from the 2023 general election, there are people hurting over the pattern of political appointments, and there are people angered by the Nigerian condition. So, when those hit by economic hardship take to the streets, it offers an unlimited opportunity for all kinds of interests to align and stoke the fire of unrest. We are stuck between genuine activism and crass opportunism.

Public protests involving Kano and Lagos, Nigeria’s most populated states, will always be challenging because of their sizeable colonies of street urchins. So far, Lagos has been peaceful but nobody can guarantee that for long. It takes just one group of area boys to kickstart mayhem. Kano ruffians went gaga from day one, as if they had been waiting for the protest all along. They invaded the government house. They vandalised the newly built Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) industrial park, looting desktop computers. They also looted shops and warehouses in several parts of the state. During a similar protest in January 2012, the government house was also attacked.

Indeed, ironies never end. Just before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was inaugurated in May 2023, I read an article in a foreign magazine questioning his ability to carry out the “much-needed” economic reforms because of a possible public backlash. Most voters did not choose him (he got only 37 percent), the author reasoned, and even that margin was controversial as the outcome was facing a legal challenge by his two major opponents. In order to warm himself into the hearts of Nigerians, Tinubu would find it near impossible to remove the petrol subsidy and liberalise the FX markets because of the ripple effects and backlash, the author argued. Well, Tinubu surprised them.

The removal of petrol subsidy led to a spike in transportation costs, but things were still somehow manageable. While petrol price tripled, transport costs did not. The upward adjustments of fares on most routes were less than 100 percent. Prices of goods were still within reasonable range. The real trouble started with the massive shift in the exchange rate — rising from N750/$ to nearly N2,000/$ at a point in the open market. For an import-dependent country, the impact was felt intensely everywhere: food, medicines, transportation, everything. Local foodstuffs are transported by diesel-powered trucks. The price of diesel, which is imported, doubled as a result of the naira crisis.

When it rains, it pours. Farming in the north was hampered by various factors: too much rain, which affected productivity; the recoloration of the naira, which had denied farmers access to cash to run their farms; and increased insecurity, which kept farmers away from their businesses. Tomatoes, so precious to the taste and integrity of many dishes and soups, were infected by a virus, thereby hampering harvest. Between June 2023 and June 2024, tomato prices soared by 320 percent. A kilo of local rice went from N608 to N1,702. Life-saving garri jumped from N403/kilo to N1,135. Food inflation was 40.87 percent in June 2024. These are National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data.

This cost of living crisis is the worst in nearly 40 years. That it took Nigerians one year to hit the streets is something of a miracle. Maybe we do not have the culture of protesting against economic hardship. Maybe we are more driven by political and religious emotions — the things that divide us — than economic problems, which do not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion, region or party and should unite us. Even the #EndSARS protests of 2020, originally intended to protest police brutality before it was extended to #EndBuhari and #EndNigeria, were more of a southern thing. It was when the looting started that it became a nationwide event, with rioters helping themselves.

As I often tell people in my circle, you can start a public protest peacefully but you cannot determine what happens thereafter. As an undergraduate of the University of Lagos during military rule, I witnessed these things. Although I was not an activist, I participated in demonstrations. I once saw how things got out of hand. While we were singing solidarity songs on our way from Akoka to Yaba, some ruffians suddenly joined in, uninvited, and started harassing and extorting motorists and shop owners. In those days, it wouldn’t take long for police to start firing teargas and bullets. They would blame protesters for “lynching pickpockets” — despite glaring bullet wounds on the dead bodies.

When this hunger protest was announced, I had only one fear: deaths. So far, fatalities have been limited to the north — where food is cheaper but non-food poverty rates are higher. In Borno state, insurgents reportedly infiltrated the crowd and killed four protesters with an explosive. Two people were reportedly killed in Niger state, where the protest started days earlier, while the federal capital territory (FCT), Jigawa and Kaduna states also recorded fatalities. Many deaths resulted from protests turning violent. From media reports, it would appear police have been using mostly teargas on protesters who operated outside the court-approved venues. We will discuss this another day.

Has the protest been successful? I would think it is too early to say. There are two dimensions to the protest, from what I can see. There is the dimension that is focused on the rising cost of living, which many have dubbed “hunger protest” and which can be partially addressed in the short run with emergency measures. The other dimension is on the need to end bad governance, which is a bit tricky and not going to be achieved quickly. I have also read a number of demands: that petrol price should be reduced to N200/litre, that the increase in electricity tariffs should be reversed, that education and healthcare should be free, and that legislators should only serve part-time.

One thing, though, is that the way government officials tried to stop the protest showed that they were finally coming to the realisation that there was fire on the mountain. They tried to put out the fire to avoid a conflagration. Tinubu held emergency meetings with leaders from various sectors and segments of the society. All the court injunctions sought and secured were pointers to the fact that they knew something could snap. As I argued previously, millions of Nigerians would not need any invitation to go on the streets. The conditions were ripe enough for a protest to grow organically. Tinubu’s efforts probably diluted the intensity of the protest but at least he finally got the memo.

The president can, in fairness, argue that the economy was going into a coma when he came on board and he needed to do these surgical operations to save it. I think many people will not counter that. My misgiving, which I have expressed again and again, is the way and manner the reform has been implemented as if Nigerians are not human beings. My anger is the obvious disconnect between the government and the people on the message of sacrifice. There is yet no evidence that this government is living the message of sacrifice. When you look at the budgetary priorities and the lifestyles of public officers, you can only conclude that Nigerians are being taken for granted.

There is one message I want our politicians, from top to bottom, to take away from the protest: that Nigerian lives matter. Our politicians seem to have learnt nothing from the End SARS mayhem which exposed their greed and endangered their safety. When ordinary Nigerians cannot afford garri but their leaders can rinse their mouths with champagne and be uttering gibberish to add insult to the injury, then you know they do not care about the anger of the people. They need to change their ways. I insist Nigerians are not a difficult people to please. All the leaders need to do is show that they care — in word and in action. If this protest can achieve that, I would count it as a huge success.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

RIP ONYEKA ONWENU

Onyeka Onwenu died suddenly on Tuesday night after performing at the 80th birthday party of Dr Stella Okoli, founder of Emzor Pharmaceuticals. What a tragedy. The legendary singer, whose song ‘One Love’ is an all-time favourite of mine, was full of life throughout her performance but collapsed shortly after after apparently suffering a heart attack. Efforts to revive her failed. She lived a full and fulfilled life as a singer, actor, broadcaster and gender activist. In the 1980s, Onwenu, the late Christy Essien-Igbokwe, Stella Monye and Funmi Davies deftly put Nigerian female singers on the front row with hits after hits. My sincere condolences to Onwenu’s sons and other loved ones. Painful.

MERCHANTS OF MALICE

Ethnic hate is not a strange thing in Nigeria. Social media platforms are readily available to amplify the hate speech. Cowards from different ethnic groups are constantly stoking the fire — particularly on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Recently, a handle, @LagosPedia, launched a hashtag, #IgboMustGo, to mobilise for the hounding of Igbos out of Lagos state and the entire south-west. It said a protest would hold from August 20 to 30 and asked Yorubas in the south-east to return home. I wouldn’t take this nonsense too seriously because I don’t see that happening, but I am worried at the increasing boldness of these preachers of hate and their enablers and supporters. Disgusting.

OUT OF FAVOUR

We have done it again. Favour Ofili, national women’s 100m champion, was — inexplicably — not registered for the sprint event at the 2024 Olympics. Initially, Ofili blamed the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) for the unbelievable oversight. The AFN has since proved that it submitted Ofili’s name to the NOC. Mr John Enoh, minister of sports development, has promised “thorough sanctions” for those responsible for the embarrassment. I will not be surprised if it is one tiny clerical officer somewhere that will be sacrificed. In Nigeria, those who should take responsibility for failings never do and the beat goes on thereafter. Disastrous.

NO COMMENT

You can take your pick of the bizarre images from the cost of living protest across the federation. Is it the man who stole traffic lights? Where will he use them? As the saying goes, if you steal a king’s kakaki (trumpet), where are you going to blow it? Or is it the pro-government protester who hilariously started complaining about the price of garri after presumably pocketing the protest allowance of N5,000? His colleague had to quickly push him away in another “off your mic” moment. The trophy still goes to the woman with an empty pot, who was complaining about how the cost of living had pushed her to hunger. Under the pot, she was holding a sachet of alcohol. Wonderful.

The nationwide ‘hunger protest’, also known as the #EndBadGovernance protest, has officially begun and is sweeping the country, causing deaths and damage in its wake. And there’s the worry that the worst might yet come. Due to the ethnic profiling that a president’s spokesperson brought into it, which targeted Igbos and their businesses, the Southeast states had to abstain. By starting the Igbo-Must-Go (Ndigbo must leave Lagos and South West) campaign, some X users are also echoing the threat and ethnic profiling against Ndigbo in Nigeria, similar to what happened in Rwanda that resulted in ethnic cleansing.

An analysis of the protest thus far reveals a deficiency in preparation and synchronisation on the part of the protesters as well as the government, especially the police. It is happening as though the protest organisers are just calling on Nigerians to protest without any real preparation or coordination, and the government and police would prefer to put an end to the protest than welcome it and use it to their advantage.

Even scarier is the fact that General Chris Musa, the chief of defence, had threatened that the military would step in if the situation got out of control or got worse and the police couldn’t handle it. It is still heartbreaking to think back on what the army did at Lekki Tollgate at the EndSars protest in October 2020. Numerous protesters lost their lives in what many referred to as the Lekki massacre.

A recurrence of that dark past would not be desired by any patriotic Nigerian. Therefore, under no circumstances should the protesters or the police allow the protest to get so out of control that the military feels justified in getting involved. Soldiers are not trained for riot control or civic upheaval. The soldiers shoot to kill and don’t use rubber bullets, unlike the police.

Furthermore, the Lekki Tollgate was the only location where soldiers were killed during EndSars in 2020. As of right now, 31 states (excluding the five Southeast states) are experiencing simultaneous protests; this means that there are at least 31 flashpoints around the nation where protesters and the military may engage in confrontations with a high risk of fatalities.

“Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee,” wrote poet and philosopher John Donne in one of his poems. John Donne wrote on the subject of human connectedness, and one may rephrase it thus: “The death of one Nigerian diminishes all of us because we are all fellow Nigerians.”

An alarming number of Nigerians are losing their lives for avoidable reasons; they are being killed by terrorists, bandits, police mishaps, kidnappers, and a host of other preventable causes. In such cases, the blood being wasted is pleading with God for retribution. Without necessarily getting too theological, some of the country’s suffering stems from acts of savagery and widespread bloodshed, as well as, of course, the apparent greed and wickedness of leaders and some citizens who profit off the suffering of fellow Nigerians. You may observe this in the food items that some Nigerians export to their neighbouring countries to make a kill rather than selling them to other Nigerians for a lower price. That is capitalism devoid of a human face for you.

President Bola Tinubu, a remarkable protester himself, with the governors’ collaboration, is the one who has the best chance of addressing the protest and stemming the confrontation and its obvious severe repercussions. The only state governors who have so far addressed the protesters are Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, and Simi Fubara of Rivers State. Also, the protesters have been addressed by only the Commissioners of Police for Edo and Lagos State. The macabre dance appears to be entertaining the rest.

Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state has also launched the ‘Farm to Feed Campaign’ to return Ndi Anambra to the farms as the state’s response to the hunger protest ongoing in the country. Governor Chukwuma Soludo wants Ndi Anambra to grow what they eat and eat what they grow in 12 months.

The president knows that protest is an essential ingredient of democracy and democratic governance and therefore shouldn’t stifle the ongoing one. To present his side of the story, the president needs to speak with the protesters as well as all Nigerians without further delay.

Although President Tinubu came into office and met a battered economy, things have only gotten worse since he came. There are very few indications that things will improve if the key policies are not revised.

It is tenable to argue that policies have gestation periods and that the Tinubu government’s programs will take some time to take effect and produce the intended outcomes. However, while acknowledging that policies take time to implement, we also need to remember that some poorly implemented good policies can only lead to catastrophe if progress is too far in error.

The withdrawal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the naira are two crucial economic policies that have released headwinds that have crushed the economy, driven inflation to an all-time high, imposed stagflation, and unleashed unparalleled hunger in the nation. These policies alone are the reason why things have become worse. The withdrawal of fuel subsidies without proper planning was terrible enough, but what is seriously harming the economy more than fuel subsidy removal is the simultaneous inconceivable tragedy of floating the naira.

Nigerians are not seeing the evidence that these policies are rising up the J curve after the initial depression, even though they have been in place for only a year and a half. Thus, it is necessary to revisit the two policies and include them among the concessions the president has to make to the protesters and Nigerians.

Also, President Tinubu has to interact with the youth by hosting X/Twitter space, much like President William Ruto of Kenya did after a comparable tax protest in his nation. The president has to take this chance to share with the young Nigerians what he met upon the assumption of office and the work he is doing. The majority of Nigerians are unaware that the previous government sold the country’s future crude oil for loans and cash, leaving Nigeria insolvent.

This means that even if the country exports roughly 1.5 million barrels per day, the amount of crude that is available to the government for foreign exchange earnings may not be up to 500 thousand barrels per day. The payment of debt and commitments to IOCs that have joint venture agreements with the NNPCL takes about 70% of export earnings.

Therefore, Mr. President, it would be better to take this opportunity and identify with the Nigerian people than to continue the deafening silence. There is a need to provide some real concessions, which need to include drastic cuts in the cost of governance and the extravagance of government officials.

Nigerians who are protesting will reciprocate if the President takes these vital actions.

Dr Law Mefor, an Abuja-based forensic and social psychologist, is a fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought. He can be contacted via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @Drlawsonmefor.

There is this anecdote in Igboland of M̀gbekē and her cutlass. By the way, M̀gbekē is a synonym for an unrefined and unsophisticated girl. Each time M̀gbekē’s farmer colleagues visited her in the farm, they saw haphazardly tilled land and a female farmer lazily fondling her farm implement. Whenever Mgbeke was asked the reason for her snailish work, she complained of an old and ineffectual cutlass. Knowing M̀gbekē as the female version of Nnoka, Okonkwo’s lazy father in Things Fall Apart, it was difficult to believe the implement was the culprit. The villagers thereafter concluded that it was either M̀gbekē’s cutlass was defective, M̀gbekē herself was lazy or the problem was with both of them.

The #EndBadGovernance protest which commenced last Thursday revealed several cracks in our Nigerianness. One major crack it revealed is our propensity for betrayal of a general struggle; the betrayal of Nigerians by Nigerians. Such betrayal is however not new in Nigeria or to Nigerians. It is not even native to us. That theme was dealt with by East African leading novelist and Kenyan author, academic, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o in his 1976 play. In The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, Ngugi narrates the trials faced by Kimathi, regarded as Kenya’s foremost anti-colonialist national hero. Kimathi’s resistance to colonialism led to his capture by British police officer, Ian Henderson. Kimathi was sold out by disgruntled fellow Kenyan Mau Mau fighters who revealed where he holed up. Once captured, his abductors put pressure on him to disclose his allies in the struggle. While awaiting trial, the colonial authorities sent three persons to persuade Kimathi to abandon the struggle. One was Shaw Henderson, the judge in his trial.

Like the biblical Satan who took Jesus to the pinnacle of a mountain and persuaded him to renounce his messianism, Henderson told Kimathi he would be released if he pleaded for his life. Kimathi refused the offer. Then a delegation of bankers came. Why was he disrupting the Kenyan economy which flourished under colonial rule? The third delegation comprised a priest, businessman and a politician. They each asked for Kimathi’s surrender. Momentarily, Kimathi was swayed but later obstinately refused. Henderson meets him again but this time, tortured him to disclose the identities of his co-revolutionists. Kimathi refused. Outside of the Ngugi play, in reality, this famed leader of the Mau Mau war of October 1956 was eventually sentenced to death by the colonial authorities. He was hanged on February 18, 1957 at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. Britain rewarded Henderson with a George Medal, while Henderson in turn documented his experience in a book he entitled Man Hunt in Kenya.

In the June 12 1993 struggle, our own Dedan Kimathi was betrayed severally. MKO Abiola suffered serial betrayals from the people he trusted. Fellow politicians, his Yoruba kinsmen, labour union activists and leading democracy activists betrayed Abiola for a mess of pottage. Leading politicians paid nocturnal visits to Ibrahim Babangida in his Aso Rock fortress, pretending they were taking a nap when their vehicle was to be identified at the Villa gate. Labour leaders allegedly collected money from the military regime to kill protests against the June 12 election annulment. Till date, the role played by those who inherited Abiola’s presidency in the betrayal is still being studied. If you read Chief Segun Osoba’s autobiography, Battlelines – Adventures In Journalism And Politics, you will learn how NUPENG’s Frank Ovie Kokori was lured into detention by a trusted ally in the struggle. He was finally betrayed in death by those who are today’s inheritors of his struggle to liberate Nigeria from autocracy. The Abdulsalami Abubakar government eventually adopted the Kimathi model. It allowed an American government delegation to visit Abiola in the prison, ostensibly to persuade him to relinquish the struggle. The rest, as they say, is history.

In Alex La Guma’s In the fog of the Seasons’ end novel, like the sabotages received by the EndBadGovernance protest, its protagonists, Beukes and Elias Tekwane, undercover protestors of apartheid, distributed handbills to announce a forthcoming strike action aimed at upsetting Apartheid South Africa. An intensely well-crafted plot, La Guma weaves the plot to unravel what went into underground anti-apartheid movements and how protesters were confronted by sabotage from fellow workers who worked as agents of government. If they were found out, Beukes and Elias faced threat of imprisonment and torture hanging over their heads. Every leaflet they distributed, every phone call they made, every outspoken word they uttered to someone about the strike got them closer to being captured. They were eventually captured by the South African police who tortured them to death in their cells.

The Nigerian #EndBadGovernance protest mirrors similar trope, though in a different manner. It synchronizes with Kenya and Uganda, becoming poster children of the need to reset the brains of misgoverning African leaders. The arrogance of William Ruto who initially labeled the anti-tax agitation in Kenya treason was confronted by Gen Z protesters whose existential misery fired their zeal. The protest not only reportedly claimed over 50 casualties, it reset the politics of Kenya. That country may never be the same again. Ruto was forced to fire most of his cabinet members amid thousands of youths marching on the streets of Nairobi since mid-June. Police deployed teargas canisters, water cannons and live bullets to chase away the protesters, yet they remained adamant. The youth eventually forced Ruto to take sweeping decisions like sacking his entire cabinet. So, when a similar protest, the #EndBadGovernance, erupted in Nigeria last Thursday, President Bola Tinubu must have known what was in the offing.

One of the first groups to dissociate itself from the protest was the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Lagos State chapter. It was followed by a group which claimed it was representing the national leadership of the National Association of University Students, (NAUS) the National Associations of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) and the National Association of Nigerian Colleges of Education Students (NANCES). It also distanced self from the planned protest. Some members of the organized labour also pulled back. On the D-Day, government’s old tactics of mercantile purchase of the consciences of protest organizers surfaced. Protesters against the protest confessed that they were given miserable N5000 by proteges of government figures.

Tinubu apparently dusted up the ancient, military-bestowed tactic of setting up monarchical and religious elites against protesters. During the June 12 crisis, apparently scared Generals Babangida and Sani Abacha ferried monarchs into Aso Rock. The aim of the two despots was to use the monarchs to subvert the people’s will. Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, came out of one of such Villa meetings to appeal to Nigerians to forget June 12. When asked by reporters what Babangida said on the annulment of the election, his “I think he was making sense” caused huge furore. It was interpreted to mean that Kabiyesi had sold out. Olubuse never recovered from this tar-brush.

Tinubu apparently didn’t realize that the IBB, Abacha model of nipping protests in the bud before they begin is an outdated and glacier-frozen style. The social media has redrawn the space, graph, contour and mode of protest agitations. Today, unlike in the past when, once you had the Paschal Bafyaus of NLC or NUPENG leaders in your pocket as locus of betrayer of a just cause, protests were doomed, today, protest is amorphous, occurs with the speed of lightning and is spontaneous. It is leader-less. You can no longer consign news to NTA, Daily Times or paid newspapermen as it was done in the past. Information travels at the speed of light on social media. In any case, who respects voices of traditional rulers any longer? Isn’t it the same voices of weed smokers; the known notorious land-grabbers and fraudsters now merely garbed in flowing apparels?

In all these push-backs, whether now or before, allegations of the presidency purchasing interventions of hitherto respected voices loomed large. So, following that ancient mould, apparently informed by security reports that the anger of Gen Z youths was boiling over, Tinubu also ferried monarchs and clergy elites on an emergency pilgrimage to Aso Rock. Emir of Zazzau, Ahmed Bamalli, Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi, Dein of Agbor, Benjamin Keagborekuzi and other natural rulers, as well as notable clerics, spoke thereafter with the press. They appealed to the organizers of the protest to give the president more time to fix Nigeria. What time? A cleric in a viral video even alleged that Tinubu thumped his chest and told clerics he bought his presidency. To these pleas, the Gen Z seemed to have invoked Sango’s wrath to descend on the Bata drum and its noisy accoutrements (Sàngó pa bàtá, pa jonwon jonwon etí è). The youths then marched on the streets of Nigeria in blazing anger.

The appeal to fear by Tinubu’s security apparatchik also failed woefully. “A “bomb” was “detonated” somewhere in Lagos.” “Foreign mercenaries were on their way into Nigeria.” To this old, frozen scaremongering tactics, the Gen Z howled, may Sango descend on Tinubu’s Bata and its useless accoutrements! If Tinubu’s inner cabinet members had been mis-informing him that the cries of hunger were politically motivated, the president must have seen for himself live videos of Nigerians expressing blistering views on his excruciating and punishing economic policies and the calamities these IMF-driven policies have brought to the people. Some even claim that Tinubu’s slavish licking of the western world’s spittle is borne out of the fact that the West has the balls of his uncomely past in its hands.

What summarizes Nigerians’ wails at protest grounds last week is Bob Marley’s iconic song, Dem belly full but we hungry. Tinubu and his cabinet members live in stupendous wealth and go on saturnalia with our wealth while Nigerians are dying in droves. The most tragic part of it is that the people in government don’t even pretend to care. Did you hear the voluble Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, say the people could keep on protesting but he and the Senate members would continue eating? It may be a Freudian slip or a flippancy for which Akpabio has earned an infamous notoriety but it seems to be the philosophy of the Tinubu government. Hungry Nigerians may go jump inside the Bunga River for all the government cares. The man who dons the moustache of Chancellor of Third Reich Nazi Germany, the despot Adolf Hitler, Nyesom Wike, also attempted to spin the weather-beaten old ad-hominem narrative of “protest sponsorship” last week. A senator was sponsoring the protest, he drooled in his usual scary guttural. The apt response he got from Nigerians was that hunger, hopelessness and death of Nigerians since Tinubu took over government were the sponsors of the protest.

And the protest held. Sadly, while official figure said 17 people were killed, suspicious police report claimed three died. From our experience during the EndSARS protest, we know who to believe. The protest also drew a graph not native to protests in time past. A hitherto supine north tipped over in its anger, crudely burning and looting. It was the same north which always hit the street in murderous baying for blood only when it feels God had been defamed. Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, explaining this mindless pillaging of the north by Almajiris, said: “What actually caused it? Today if you look at Nigeria, 70% of those in the North are in poverty. If you look at 65% of our people in the North, they don’t even have bank accounts. In 18 million out of school children, over 14 million are in the North.” In Sokoto, protesters at the Sultan’s palace even went extremely idiotic, calling for soldiers’ return. Same north went into slumber throughout the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s zero governance. The southwest, on the other hand, was calm even though pummeled by hunger. South-south wailed in anger despite the annoying woto-woto from Asari Dokubo threatening would-be protesters. Dokubo had earlier confirmed that he had collected money from the presidency. Uncharacteristically, the southeast went into an unusual somnolence.

In the midst of all these, even with the loss of souls, Aso Rock has feigned deafness and dumbness. When his claim that Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar sponsored the protest was perforated, Bayo Onanuga immediately relapsed into a baffling aphasia. Nigerians told Onanuga, borrowing from Marley’s lyrics, that “a hungry mob is an angry mob.” Since August 1, Tinubu, too has maintained a concerning taciturnity, apparently, like Emperor Nero, fiddling while Nigeria got enveloped in conflagration. Some have interpreted this self-imposed deafness of Aso Rock as arrogance of power. To some others, it was a hallmark of presidential conceit for the people. Even William Ruto peeled his initial lapel of arrogance and spoke to the people of Kenya.

“We must complain. Yes plain, blunt complaints, (peaceful) ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong—this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it.”

— W.E.B. Du Bois

“War is what happens when language fails.”

— Margaret Atwood

“Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery.”

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

From the outset, let me be clear: I abhor violence and reject war in all its forms. Yet, I staunchly believe in protest and dissent as cornerstones of a democratic society. I have lived this truth, endured detentions and deprivations for it, and will continue to advocate for freedom and a free spirit until my last breath.

Since turning 18, I have participated in countless protests, always peacefully, never resorting to violence. I have marched alongside notable Nigerians such as the indefatigable lawyer Chief Gani Fawehinmi and the eloquent and urbane advocate for democracy and good governance, Mr. Alao Bashorun. Elders like Chief Anthony Enahoro, Wole Soyinka, Baba Omojola, and Dr. Frederick Faseun have shared the streets of Lagos with my generation, standing firm against injustice, often facing tear gas and state violence.

At that time, the current president and some of his closest associates have been vocal in encouraging us to protest against hardship, injustice, and poor governance. As allies, we have mobilized young men and women to decry rigged elections and the perceived theft of national resources.

The Yoruba people, to whom I proudly belong, have historically led the charge against colonialism, local oppression, military brutality, and corruption. In times past, if other ethnic groups hesitated to speak out, the Yoruba would courageously stand up, voice their dissent, and face the consequences. This legacy, inherited from the leaders of the first republic—who boldly opposed colonial masters and their local collaborators—must not be forgotten. It is why figures like Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti were seen as threats by colonial authorities and faced various indignities. It is why Wole Soyinka, Tai Solarin, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Femi Falana, and others were imprisoned and why leaders like Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Gen Alani Akinrinade, and Dr. Amos Akingba went into exile to continue their agitation against the Sani Abacha regime.

What has changed? Yes, we now have a civilian government. But does this mean that the issues we protested against have vanished, and we now live in an ideal society? Absolutely not. Even under this so-called democracy, our leaders, now in power, have sometimes called for protests against policies during the presidencies of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. Some have even sheltered Niger Delta agitators after they protested by attacking oil pipelines.

Now, I pose this question to my Yoruba brothers, many of whom shared the struggle with me: What has changed? Is it because we now have a Yoruba president that dissent must cease, and those who oppose the current order must be labeled as dangerous troublemakers and foreign invaders?

We often profess to be Christians and Muslims. Yet, some are now resorting to traditional rites and mystical practices such as Oro and Agemo to prevent peaceful gatherings in places like Yaba and Tinubu Square. We are deploying hate against fellow Nigerians while those we serve hoard wealth in banks owned by the Igbos we so hate and award lucrative contracts to those we are told to despise. All because they do not want their fellow Yorubas to know their secret heists.

There have always been those who misuse protests for their gain, and there always will be. This is why we have law enforcement, who should be trained and equipped to manage such situations, ensuring public safety and protecting property.

Using money and fear to suppress dissent, especially when it is "our turn" to wield power, will be counterproductive. We are fostering hate and alienating other ethnic groups, demonizing people who have been our neighbors, classmates, and fellow citizens. We must remember that power is fleeting; today, it is our turn, but tomorrow, it will be someone else's.

The maximum tenure for any leader is eight years unless we are now advocating for life presidencies. When it is someone else's turn, and they retaliate against "our children" who were in power, will we still be able to protest?

Life is a continuum, and future leaders may come from unexpected places. Who could have imagined Donald Trump leading America? Yet, today, he embodies rhetoric reminiscent of darker times in history. Many of my friends in America are troubled by the prospect of his return to power.

If a leader akin to Sani Abacha were to rise in Nigeria, would we, the Yoruba, still have the courage to speak out against injustice, corruption, and nepotism?

I know that after this is published, there will be backlash, as there has been in the past. But these attacks will not deter me like water off a duck's back. Some of us must have the courage to speak out, not just for today but for tomorrow. We must not pass down a legacy of complacency, ethnic baiting, or blind loyalty to future generations. This is not the heritage Awolowo and his contemporaries left to us, nor what Wole Soyinka exhorts in his writings and activism. It is not the lesson taught by Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi, or the many others who inspired our generation of activists.

Leaders are not always wrong, just as agitators are not always right. However, the right to voice one's opinions must be preserved in any democracy, especially one that seeks progress. As Soyinka so powerfully reminded us, "The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny."

Babafemi Ojudu (CON), distinguished senator, veteran journalist, ex- presidential adviser and one of the last standing disciples of Chief Obafemi Awolowo breaks his silence and speaks to Nigerians

After three days of nationwide protests over bad governance in the country, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has scheduled to address the nation on Sunday.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, announced this in a statement, on Saturday. The spokesman said the broadcast would hold at 7am.

The Protesters had requested that the President address the nation on the many demands they have laid out. 

There is so far no insight into what the broadcast will contain and it is doubtful that Tinubu chose to address the nation because the protesters said so. However it provides him the opportunity to address certain troubling issues areas in his government and it’s activities. 

One of the areas that has received condemnation Is the oil sector which is the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy. Incidentally the President superintends over the sector since he doubles as the Minister of Petroleum. 

The poor handling of the newly completed Dangote Refinery by government officials has opened a can of worms and exposed the administration to criticism. 

While he is not likely to return the subsidy regime which he abolished on his inauguration on May 29, 2023, he may use the address to make a far-reaching pronouncement on the nation’s energy policy. 

So far his promise to return the nation’s refineries to operation has not been kept.

The unwieldy size of his administration is another area that has engendered disquiet. Many people expect that he may address the need to tinker with the size of his government and cut down on personnel costs.

Tinubu nominated the highest number of Ministers in the history of Nigeria at a time the nation’s economy is at its worst.

The third area is his ineffective fiscal policy that has engendered hyperinflation and made the prices of goods, especially food, to skyrocket. With an unprecedented inflation ratio of 34.19 in June, driven by more than 40 percent food inflation, the country is reeling as people find it difficult to feed themselves.

The poverty level in May 2023, when this government came on board and before the dramatic price surge, was 38.9 percent, with an estimated 87 million Nigerians living below the poverty line. Only India presents a worse record.

The reason for the significant price jump is the macroeconomic policies of the Tinubu administration, especially the removal of petroleum and electricity subsidies and the implementation of other neo-liberal economic policies, such as the floating of the naira. 

These have led to higher costs for power and fast depreciation of the naira, both of which have aggravated the country’s economic challenges and caused widespread social discontent. 

The options open to the government, fiscally, are limited. It could either continue with the ongoing reforms and policies or go back to the pre-Tinubu years when the government was paying unwieldy petroleum subsidies and operated the dual forex exchange system..

Although the Tinubu administration has not come clean over petrol subsidies, which it pays through the backdoor, the option of reversing the policy on petroleum subsidy is not feasible, practical, or sustainable. 

The petroleum subsidies bill under President Buhari ballooned such that between June 2022 and his last day in office in May 2023, to over N3 trillion for subsidies, most of which were likely stolen through government corruption.

It appears the most important driver of inflation is the depreciation and instability of the naira, even more so than the high cost of petrol and electricity. It is one area that needs to be revisited. 

The government has tried to cushion the effects of its harsh economic policies with certain safety nets, all of which have so far proved defective. While Institutional corruption has claimed his Minister of Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Betta Edu, he has not introduced any other effectively policy of cushioning the effects of his policies on the people.

Finally, he has rum one of the most expensive administrations, approving humongous amounts for projects that most Nigerians regard as not crucial or people focused.

Among them is the completion of the Vice President’s residence with a whopping N21 billion, the renovation of his Dodan Barracks Lagos guest house with N5billion and the purchase of new Presidential jets. 

There are so many areas that need attention. However, it is expected that he may take a cue from recent public disapproval of some policies to make amends.