ECHOES FROM #ENDBADGOVERNANCE PROTEST

Ayodele Okunfolami urges the government  to address the root causes of the protests

That it got a flatfooted administration on its toes, the #EndBadGovernance protest was a success for me. Since the administration of President Bola Tinubu, I have been at sea on when the Federal Executive Council meets. Traditionally, it holds on Wednesdays, but under this administration the meetings have been inconsistent and haphazard. Sometimes we hear they meet on Mondays, later its on Wednesday again, other weeks they don’t meet, after they do a marathon meeting that lasts two sittings. But the fear of protests, was the beginning of holding daily meetings. Ministers that were hitherto unknown began hosting post-meeting press conferences and town halls soliciting for patience with the president. And patience was the only common theme in their statements.

Their unconnected declarations exposed the way the administration is being run which was more reason why #EndBadGovernance became expedient. A president that asked us on the eve of his inauguration not to pity him because he asked for the job was now sending proxies to us to have patience with him. An administration that blew the trumpet of its achievements after 100 days is now saying one year is not enough to assess them. A Finance Minister that told us they would not go the path of borrowing months down the line applauded himself for getting the best loan deal for Nigerians from the World Bank. The CBN Governor blamed the current economic woes on the previous administration’s use of the Ways and Means that soared under it to N27 trillion and just four days after this statement, a bill is sent to the National Assembly to amend the CBN Act to increase this blamable Ways and Means from 5% to 15%. In one breath, you want to reduce cost of governance by implementing the Oronsaye Report yet create Ministry of Livestock Development, something that a department in the Ministry of Agriculture can easily handle, increasing an already over bloated government. If these are not the embodiment of bad governance what else is? It is not patience from the followers that is required, it is apologies from the leaders that is needed.

They spent a fortnight seeking the audience of Nigerians on why the protest shouldn’t go ahead as if they listen to themselves. On Monday, May 27, 2024, the Attorney-General and the Minister of Information were asking for wider consultations on the National Anthem. The next day 28^th, the National Assembly passed and in another 24 hours the president had signed it into law. If you can’t listen to your own appointees how do you expect others to listen to you?

Why listen when what they say is incoherent? One mouthpiece of the presidency says the protest is sponsored by the opposition, another mounts the same chair to say they are faceless and yet another says foreign governments are involved. More sickening is when the secret service is telling us that they know those behind the protests and the police are now asking the public for the faces. It is this display of unintelligence that prompted #EndBadGovernance. On the first night of the protest, the IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, while urging the protesters to stop because of the violence it had caused stated in a press conference live on television that the protest had cost the life of a police officer. People demanded to know who the police officer was and where he had lost his life. Two nights later, the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, while exaggerating the damage caused by the protests and at the same time attempting to downplay the accusations of Amnesty International’s accusations of police highhandedness, said the policeman that was reported dead had miraculously survived with injuries. Hmm…miracle no dey tire Jesus.

Besides, when Nigerians were shouting themselves dry on cutting the cost of governance, the leadership was doubling down on buying SUVs, building a vice presidential lodge. So the youths simply followed the pattern of trade unions that get the attention of government only through strikes and decided to pinch the leadership into reality with a nationwide protest. Also, Nigerians have been dialoguing through vox pops but because they thought the leadership don’t read the same newspapers, listen to the same radio or watch the same television, perhaps, they would get their attention when they march the streets. Democracy itself is an open ended dialogue so Bola Tinubu calling for dialogue in his reluctantly given speech is as misunderstanding of democracy as calling for protests to cease. Protests are regular features of democracies. In fact, it is proof of a healthy democracy.

When they could not find a constitutional argument to stop the protests and coupled with ghosts of protests past in which they were key actors haunting them, they agreed on discouraging the protests with fear of being hijacked by hoodlums. They cited #EndSARS  and the destructions, looting and violence that followed. Unfortunately for them, Nigerians have outlived such tricks from the playbook and refused to be blackmailed. What the tone deaf leaders and their sympathizers failed to realise is that those that cause mayhem are the rented thugs who counter the protests.   

Why should there be fear of violence for a protest that was well announced over a month before? Shouldn’t the security operatives have prepared when there were pockets of demonstrations by women months before? Annually, Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency publishes its flood outlook yet floods come and our leaders remain helpless. Is this not bad governance when leaders are neither proactive nor reactive? Let’s even say, like rains, that the unscrupulous agents take advantage of protests to make it riotous because they outnumber the police or that the police choose to be uncharacteristically civil, shouldn’t they have found a way beyond simplistic answers of sharing rice to deal with eventual damages? Shouldn’t there have been a policy by now that every building in Nigeria be registered and insured the way we do our vehicles so that it would be the insurance companies that would be paying out the compensations for losses? This would boost the insurance industry, create another cache of funds that can be reinvested into the economy or serve as domestic borrowing. It would also be an indirect way of enforcing building codes as insurance companies would be unwilling to insure properties prone to damage or destruction and most importantly save the government that is always complaining of lack of money recompensing owners of destroyed buildings with unbudgeted subheadings. So that whether it is markets, homes or courts consumed by fire, buildings destroyed by floods or those that had to give way for Lagos-Calabar coastal highway and other public infrastructure, it would be the insurance companies’ responsibilities to reimburse victims and not government.

And talking about money, why are people now summing up how much the Nigerian economy is losing because of the protests? Where were their calculators when the national grid keeps collapsing or when Nigerians spend hours on fuel queues?

Unfortunately, the president’s virtue signaling speech still had an adversarial approach and has done little to answer the protesters. As mentioned, protests are pivotal in democracies. What is expected of the government is to address the root causes of the protests. If the structural causes of hunger is not resolved, Nigerians will remain angry. If the regulatory inconsistencies persists and electricity remains unavailable and unaffordable, multinationals would continue to exit and unemployment would continue to recruit idle hands for protests and anti-protests. If out-of-school children remain in tens of millions, peaceful protests would be hijacked by flag-raising minors who are ignorant of the issues at hand and destroy public institutions. By the way, what a region that government has eternally termed educationally disadvantaged needs is not a Digital Innovation Centre. Let them have primary education first, then progress from there.

In conclusion, the protesters have made their point. Protests on any issue can and should be sustained. They can now leave the streets and restrategise. Then for the security agents who are yet to learn their lesson: no government wins any war against its citizens; either they run out of bullets or they run out of citizens.

 Okunfolami writes from

Festac, Lagos