By: Salihu Moh. Lukman
Kaduna
#EndBadGovernance protest, which held from August 1 to August 10 has ended. The protests, which spread to many parts of the country has resulted in breakdown of law and order resulting in avoidable loss of lives and property especially in the North. Many states affected had to impose 24-hour curfew to bring the situation under control. The reality is that the protest created atmosphere of uncertainty across virtually every part of the country. Economic activities were brought to a standstill even in areas where the protest did not take place. It has also, in varying degrees, raise questions about the capacity of governments at all levels to be responsive to challenges facing citizens.
Without attempting to review the responses of governments at all levels to the #EndBadGovernance protest, certainly it fell short of public expectations. There was almost complete absence of initiatives at all levels to identify the organisers of the protest and seek to engage them with the view of attempting to end the protest. On the other hand, the organisers maintained low profile and didn’t fully disclose the identity of its leadership. Although some activists made public appearances in TV and radio programmes, there was nothing that can be used to validate the claims of those individuals. In the circumstance, therefore, the organisational structure, membership and scope of operation of the #EndBadGovernance protest organisers remained nebulous, and Nigerians can only continue to hazard guesses about who the organisers of the #EndBadGovernance campaign are.
As it is, there are information suggesting that the organisers have announced October 1 as date for the resumption of the protests. Every Nigerian should be worried about this development. With governments at all levels failing to engage the organisers, practically underestimating the capacity of the organisers to mobilise for the protests, ordinary citizens are left at the mercy an angry Nigerians. The truth is that virtually every ordinary citizen is a potential member of such an angry group simply because the condition of life in the country is harsh. Let no one be deceived, the situation affects virtually every living soul in Nigeria on a scale highly unimaginable and never experienced in the past.
Without doubt, the trigger for our current situation is the withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products and floating the exchange rate of the Naira against other international currencies. For an import dependent economy, it is predictable that the two policies will produce inflationary pressure. Unfortunately, so far, the government of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is unable to produce any clear definitive policy response to the situation. All that citizens hear government to be saying is calling on citizens to be patient without outlining how long it will take for the harsh reality to abate. Meanwhile, daily, Nigerians confront challenges of hunger and threats to daily survival. Many citizens die prematurely on account of hunger and preventable diseases. While acknowledging government explanations about how bad the economy has been mismanaged by previous administrations, it must be stressed that being an elected government, Nigerian political leaders should be more responsive. The minimum should be to acknowledge the reality facing citizens and demonstrate some measure of compassion and seek to ameliorate the harsh condition facing citizens by relaxing some of these policies.
Instead, painfully, elected leaders, including President Asiwaju Tinubu are grandstanding behaving basically as colonial overloads who have conquered Nigerians. With a conquest mentality, our leaders have proceeded to demobilise virtually all political structures in the country such that today Nigeria has earned the bad reputation of being a democracy without any functional political party. All the registered political parties are nothing but legal entities that only present candidates for elections. Partly, because of that reality there is none of the parties that is able to recruit the leaders of the #EndBadGovernance protest or at least publicly join the protest. Although individuals such as Alh. Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi have declared support for the protest, they were unable to contract any strong relationship with the protest organisers.
So long as political leaders and political parties in the country will be unable to contract strong relationships with veritable and energetic constituencies such as the #EndBadGovernance protest organisers, Nigerian democracy is imperiled. This could potentially increase the frustrations of Nigerians and may be responsible for the existence of high levels of desperations that produces the explosive realities associated with the last protest. We must caution that if this is left unattended to, and especially if the government continue with its grandstanding dispositions, doing nothing to either produce clear policy plans that will arrest the harsh realities facing Nigerians or produce functionally responsive measures that could ameliorate and unshackle citizens from the grip of hunger and starvation, the risk of the protest resuming any day before October 1 date is very high.
Part of the reality is also the associated exposure of virtually every Nigerian of becoming potential victim of the anger of hungry Nigerians is the high possibility of angry hungry protesters breaking into peoples’ homes and looting everything that is lootable. Already, in some parts of the North such ugly incidences have happened during the last protests. Given such possibility, it is in the enlightened self-interests of all well-meaning Nigerians committed to the democratic development of the country to step out and seek to engage young Nigerians, including the organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protest. All Nigerians committed to the democratic development of Nigeria must mobilise to give practical expressions to the aspirations of all Nigerians to guarantee that elected representatives and governments are responsive to challenges facing citizens.
A situation where government resort to cheap campaign of blackmails with argument of opposition sponsoring the protests should simply be ignored. In any event, it is legitimate for opposition to start working for the defeat of a ruling party once they are unable to justify the confidence of the electorates. In fact, ideally, if democratic structures of the country are functionally working such as political parties and the National Assembly, with what is going on in the country, President Asiwaju Tinubu and many state governors are candidates for immediate impeachment. The comatose reality, which has reduced the National Assembly to a rubber stamp with political parties that are nothing more than leprous fingers, is responsible for the current high levels of frustration and desperation of Nigerians to register their anger through protests. Combined with a reality whereby INEC seems to be unwilling to discharge its statutory responsibility of registering new parties that could produce veritable options for legitimate leadership contests in the country, all hopes of democratic change of leadership in the country are fading away.
While President Asiwaju Tinubu’s government can be allowed to indulge itself with the belief that its harsh economic policies are necessary responses to the bad economy it inherited, it must be told that the current hopeless political atmosphere, which has disbanded virtually all democratic structures in the country is the handwork of President Asiwaju Tinubu. If Previous administration had taken steps to disband democratic structures of the country, arguably, President Asiwaju Tinubu may not have succeeded in becoming the President of the Federal Republic.
Nigerians must rise to the challenge of rebuilding Nigeria’s democratic structures. All Nigerians committed to the democratic development of the country must join forces with young Nigerians who are legitimately angry with the harsh realities facing citizens. The objective must be to seek to direct the anger of Nigerians in building the structures of an identified political party and start working for the eventual defeat of President Asiwaju Tinubu and political leaders responsible for the current travails producing hunger and starvation on a mass scale in the country in 2027. Building the structures of an identified political party must be about developing clear initiatives that would translate into legislative and policy initiatives at all levels capable of effectively responding to all the current national challenges of mass poverty, unemployment and insecurity in the country.
Given all our recent experiences with the APC, which emerged in 2015 with captivating promises but collapsed and ended up betraying most of the promises it made and produced elected leaders who operate basically like emperors, building structures of an identified political party must be about producing collective leadership at all levels in the country. It must be about producing new generation of leaders who will not only be accountable but will have the humility to acknowledge mistakes committed and take steps to correct them. It is also about restoring dignity and pride of political leaders across every part of the country based on which strong political negotiations driven by abiding recognition and respecting the interest of all constituent parts of the Nigerian federation are guaranteed.
A situation whereby political leaders undertake monumental projects such as the Lagos – Calabar coastal highway, running into trillions of Naira, more than half of the federal budget without the input of political leaders from any part of the country is dangerous and inimical to the growth and sustainability of Nigerian democracy. How can a country with close to 20 million out of school children justify such a high expenditure with practically zero initiative to develop the educational sector and perhaps create capacity to start mopping the out of school children from the streets? With the current high level of insecurity in the country, wouldn’t it be more sensible and logical to invest in strengthening all the arms of security agencies in the country?
As it is, the President Asiwaju Tinubu’s administration seems to be on a roller coaster aggrandised spendings amid mass hunger and poverty in the country, which is partly responsible for the highly volatile situation in the country. Every committed democrat in the country must wake up to this challenge and seek to mobilise Nigerians to direct their anger creatively and positively towards reformation of democratic structures in the country. Given that majority political leaders are already aggrieved and with the way the government has rendered virtually all registered political parties comatose, the process of uniting aggrieved political leaders across all parties must earnestly commence. This is the point when ideally, opposition leaders such as Alh. Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Peter Obi and Sen. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso should step forward to provide the needed leadership to reform our democracy and ensure the emergence of a functional political party capable of rescuing Nigeria.
In addition to opposition leaders, other political leaders in APC who have been edged out of the party should join forces with opposition leaders to rescue the country and put Nigeria back on the path of democratic development. These leaders include Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, Sen. Ibukunle Amosun, Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and many others. While acknowledging that there are already unfolding initiatives in this direction, the rising anger in the country must be utilised and directed to strengthen the emergence of a veritable functional political party different from APC, PDP, LP and NNPP. As it is, it must be acknowledged that these parties cannot serve as the platforms to rescue Nigeria from its current unfortunate self-inflicted downward spiral producing mass poverty and starvation.
The restlessness of Nigerian youth must be mobilised and directed appropriately to push INEC to register all new parties that meets every statutory requirement for registration. Whether by design or default, there seems to be undeclared moratorium for registration of new parties by INEC. Once that is sustained, it will embolden governments at all levels to continue with the current arrogant disposition of behaving like a colonial administration, which has conquered Nigerians and has no obligation to be responsive to the plight of citizens, not to talk of being accountable to Nigerians. Being able to produce a functional political party capable of mobilising Nigerians to defeat current leaders is a fundamental precondition to douse tension in the country and revive the hopes of Nigerians about the possibility of a better and prosperous Nigeria.
Inability to produce a functional political party is partly responsible for why the leaders of the #EndBadGovernance campaign will remain amorphous largely because of the current repressive disposition of the government. Already, there are indications of some clampdown activities by security agencies against some Nigerians alleged to be linked to the last protest. The danger is, if care is not taken it can lead to full blown crack down against political opposition in the country with the possible subversion of legally guaranteed rights of citizens. There is therefore the urgent need to develop the appropriate political strategy for citizens, especially Nigerian youths to organically connect with democratic structures in the country and use them to negotiate effective responses to challenges facing the country.
The point must be made, for any political party to develop the needed capacity to rescue Nigeria and put the country back on the path of national democratic development, it must appropriately and organically connect with the current #EndBadGovernance campaign. In fact, it must be capable of recruiting the leaders of the campaign as potential candidates for 2027 elections at different levels. The point must be made, if the government led by President Asiwaju Tinubu has failed to connect with Nigerians who are legitimately angry and in need of opportunity and platform to negotiate their future, opposition and orphaned political leaders in the country must join forces and create the desired democratic alternative openings to start negotiating a prospective and prosperous future for Nigerians.
Achieving that may require strategic initiative of setting up a contact team of multi political leaders to initiate the process of engagement with our teaming young population who are legitimately angry. The contact team and its terms of reference must be made public, and they must within the shortest time possible develop a framework of engagement at all levels with legitimately angry Nigerian youths. The objective must be to seek to strengthen the capacity of Nigerian youths to have a strong voice, which must be respected by governments at all levels. In the event of compelling needs to resume the #EndBadGovernance protest in the country, every step must be taken to guarantee peaceful conduct.
The point is, under no circumstance should political leaders sit back and just watch Nigerian youths with legitimate grievances ignored and left with their frustration. Once that is the case, the predictable outcome will be violence and breakdown of law and order with high potentials for collateral loss of lives and property. If opposition political leaders are to earn the trust of Nigerians, they must begin to develop all the requisite democratic structures guaranteed by Nigerian laws to connect with Nigerians represented by all interests.
The #EndBadGovernance campaign is certainly an important interest which must be recruited and mainstreamed in the structures of any political party, which promises to rescue Nigeria and put it back on the path of national democratic development. Inability to do that would spell doom for any prospect of challenging and defeating the current APC government of President Asiwaju Tinubu. If by October 1, the #EndBadGovernance protest resume in its amorphous nature without at least the contact team of opposition political leaders being able to intervene and strengthen the organisational nature of the protest, Nigerians should simply write off opposition political leader as either incompetent, unwilling or not interested of developing the requisite democratic structures to produce truly responsive elected governments and leaders in the country. May God Almighty endow Nigerian political leaders with the wisdom and courage that will produce the desired alternative functional political party in Nigeria. Amin!
