We awaited the nationwide protest marches, due to arrive on Thursday, August 1, with bated breath. The protest was dubbed variously, #EndHunger, #EndBadGovernance, etc. There were many days of notice from the purported organisers of the marches. The anticipation of what the day portended kept many of us surfing in the media space for days searching for what to expect with little success. The fearful anticipation was not without foundation. Mass protests in this country, and probably elsewhere worldwide, had never really ended peacefully.
The #EndSARS protest of 2020 with the wanton killings of protesters, mass looting of government and private properties and the general feeling of insecurity it engendered is still fresh in our minds. Thursday morning was like no other day, where I live in Abuja, in one of the busiest parts of the city. My neighbourhood straddles IBB and Ahmadu Bello Way both highways that take plenty of traffic every morning and late in the evening. Ahmadu Bello Way leads to the Federal Secretariat and IBB to the junction close to Wuse Market and they are always choked with commuters.
But this Thursday morning when I looked out of my window it was quiet all around with only the odd vehicle, at the interval, ambling along. The pervading silence and the empty streets were all reminiscences of those disruptive COVID-19 stay-at-home days. As the morning wore on, the silence within the city centre would soon turn out to be deceptive as gory details of what was transpiring in outer Abuja suffused the media space. Though protesters were only allowed, by a court order, procured by the FCT minister, to converge within the Moshood Abiola Stadium leading to the airport, many protesters were reported to be massing on all the streets leading into Abuja.
There was pandemonium, as expected on the side of Keffi road where the suburban areas of densely-populated Nyanya and Karu lie. The same happened on the Airport Road and the road that led out of Maitama District towards Dutsen-Alhaji. In some of these places, riots had broken out and street urchins were breaking into shops and stores. Commuters coming from Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport were molested at the gatherings in Lugbe. The news from elsewhere was no less grim.
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From nearby Kaduna, the protest was reportedly riotous and government properties close to the government house were severely vandalised. Before the end of the day, news emanating from Kano and Maiduguri was heart-rending.
Kano, which is yet to live down the election upheavals, was engulfed in tumultuous street riots. The media was filled with reports of youths running around in a frenzy and causing mayhem throughout the city. The happenings in Maiduguri were equally pathetic. The epicentre of the crisis, Bulumkuttu ward, near the airport, has been associated with such crisis since the Maitatsine uprising of the early 1980s.
It is a pity that many lives were lost in all these encounters with the rioters. Gombe, Bauchi, Niger, Yobe, Jigawa and Katsina states, were all engulfed in similar crises.
Surprisingly, there was relative quietness over the states in the south. There was hardly a whimper from the South-East and South-South. There were some skirmishes in the South-West, here and there but it was Lagos that gave the most surprise. However, one must admit that in Lagos State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has demonstratively been adroit in handling the situation. Long before D-Day, he has been seen engaging with various groups making explanations.
Getting to the fourth day of the protest the most significant aspect would be the lack of identifiable national leadership of the protesters. Without an identifiable group to air their message, the whole thing boils down to sporadic uprisings and would hardly achieve the goal. It did not surprise that the president’s speech this morning gave no comfort to the agitators. I listened to the speech and I am not surprised at its content. From my perspective, he is not in a position to revert the policies that have brought so much hardship to the citizenry.
In any case, anyone with the slightest acquaintance with government finances would know that the president inherited a bankrupt treasury last year. President Buhari’s government lacked the courage to stem the profligacy of his government while he looked the other way as revenue dwindled. Instead of addressing the subsidy and naira value matter, he took humongous loans to stem the holes in his budget. President Buhari’s government left in its wake a debt-ridden economy. Tinubu took an uncommon courage to deal with the situation, though without a plan to mitigate the consequences.
Now it is incumbent upon him to take the courage to implement the unpalatable measures that would bring succour to the economy. It is not too late for him to slim down his government by reducing the number of ministers, merging ministries and parastatals and generally be seen to be cutting down on expenses. This should provide an example to the leadership of the National Assembly and the state governments to imbibe the same.
One last word; the political elite, particularly in the far-north part of the country need to reassess the relationship they have with the citizens they profess to represent. There seems to be a disconnect as most of them went AWOL during the crises.
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