As the working masses and youths across the country gear up to protest the severe hardship facing us today in the country, the federal government has also rolled out its propaganda machinery to discredit this action. One of such mischievous spins is the widely circulated statement of Bode George, a former military governor and PDP stalwart. According to him, the protest will likely lead to violence. As if this were not enough, he added that the Yoruba should not allow ‘other tribes’ to interrupt the regime of their son in Aso Rock. Sadly, this divisive sentiment has gained significant momentum, uncovering profound undercurrents of the ethnicization of the 2023 general elections by various factions of the ruling class.e ruling class
At every point in the article, Bode George tried to demobilise the people by excusing the Bola Tinubu administration from taking responsibility for its failure and that of the system it represents. He started by claiming there was a meeting of Northern elders in the build up to the EndSARS protest in 2020 where they supposedly agreed to ensure there was no protest in the North to protect their son – President Buhari. He therefore asked Southerners or maybe the Yoruba to stop any protest to protect their son- President Tinubu. But these are simply lies. There is no verifiable evidence of such a meeting he referred to, and the EndSARS started spontaneously so such pre-planning was only in his imagination. Besides, there were protests in several states in the three geopolitical zones in the North, contrary to Bode George’s distortion of recent history.
As if those false claims were not enough, he proceeded by saying that we are asking for a result of 60 years of rot within a year. He even challenged the public by asking if there is any President that had done better than Tinubu in one year of office. But the simple fact is that Tinubu’s capitalist policies are driving working-class people deeper into starvation, poverty, social inequality, unemployment, and frustrated existence.
I have argued on different fora that Tinubu is the most successful President Nigeria has had since 1999. So I agree with Bode George that I can’t point to any president that has done better than Tinubu in a year. My reasons are that Tinubu is the first President that, within a year, successfully withdrew all kinds of subsidies and other social benefits. From fuel on his assumption of office and price of everything skyrocketed leading to high unbearable cost of survival (not living because average Nigerians are no longer living but surviving). Education subsidy was declared gone with introduction of student loan while institutions were forced to increase tuition fees. This is subjecting young Nigerians to a lifetime debt. The US and UK are examples of how terrible student loans can be regardless of development there. He floated Naira and the devaluation of Naira went more negative than ever before since 1999.
As promised, he increased the tax base by milking poor working-class people the most with regressive taxes. But the aggressive taxation of the regime did not touch the big corporations and capitalists. He has also been quick in voting money for his ostentatious living and those of others in power. He quickly allocated billions of naira to the unconstitutional office of the First Lady and allocated more billions to maintain a presidential yacht than the total amount allocated to the student loan bank. He purchased a private jet worth US$150 million at a time his government was arguing that minimum wage increment would cause inflation. When the minimum wage was changed (not increased), he raised the figure but not the value. Every intellectually honest and informed person knows that N30,000 wage in 2019 is better than N70,000 of today. So truly and indeed, Tinubu is the most successful of all the Presidents Nigeria has had since 1999. In a single year, he implemented all the neoliberal and anti people’s policies his predecessors were slow and scared of unleashing in their 8 years each.
It is the same Yoruba that would say ‘Sunday to ba ma da, Satide ni a ti n mọ’ which means ‘if a Sunday would be good, we would see the signs from Saturday’. So Nigerians do not need to wait until four years before they start kicking against his repressive policies. Otherwise, many would not live long enough to witness the end of the regime of this starvation, insecurity, economic depression etc.
Demystifying the supposed success of Tinubu is not enough. Another point worthy of addressing is the propaganda that protests are always hijacked leading to destruction and setbacks. Again, this is true whenever there is an intolerant government in power. But hijacked by who and for what reasons? This is the question the hijack crusaders have failed to raise or answer in their articles. Specifically speaking of EndSARS, we all know that there was no hijack or hoodlum disruption other than those sponsored by the government in those states where it occurred. In Lagos, the state government’s BRT buses were used to convey miscreants who infiltrated and attacked protesters. There are multiple videos and pictures as evidence that cannot be denied. At Lekki, it was the army that attacked peaceful Nigerians who were reciting the national anthem. This is just one of many examples. I was a regular attendee of the EndSARS panel in Lagos. I saw and heard the testimonies validating that the government orchestrated the violence to carry out their repressive plots.
In the last few days, we have seen state sponsored protests in cities like Abuja, Lagos, Ogun among others. These protests were tagged ‘Say No To Protest’. It is ironic that the people ‘saying no to protest’ were actually protesting. It is also worrisome that the State Security Service (aka DSS) and Nigeria Police Force have not ‘warned’ any of this category of protesters against violence nor has any of these Tinubu regime defenders raised an alarm that the say-no-to-protest processions would lead to anarchy. But the DSS and Police were quick to ‘advise’ the EndBadGovernance protesters not to have any procession. This could only mean one thing. It is that pro-government protesters are free to protest in support of the government without fear of violence because the only body capable of orchestrating violence in the midst of protest is the government itself. Hence, should there be any violence as orchestrated during EndSARS, the government is culpable.
It is also worrisome to have also attributed the organisers of the protest or alleged sponsors of the protest to be opposition parties. Two points are to be drawn here historically and momentarily. The coalition that formed the All Progressive Congress (APC) on whose platform Tinubu became president was a creation of protest. Tinubu with all other leaders of this party were ‘radically’ sponsoring and organising all forms of protests from 2012 until 2015 when protest votes sent Goodluck Jonathan out of office as the president of Nigeria. That the opposition is protesting is evidence of democracy that should be defended. Momentarily, the popularity the protest has gained even before it started shows that a lot is fundamentally wrong with the regime. These anomalies are what the government should rather address than waste public resources on sponsoring fake protesters and pseudo-intellectuals to write in its defence.
So the barrage of blackmail and propaganda should be thrown into the dustbin. Funnily, these agents of ‘protest will be hijacked’ argument were not always available to announce that political rallies would be hijacked whenever these same politicians mobilise people during campaign periods. At least, we have seen many cases of political attacks among different parties. Yet, these emergency lovers of peace would not warn politicians against volatile political rallies during campaigns.
Their economists have also mentioned that there is a global economic crisis and inflation. Capitalism cannot exist without these problems. So there is, truly. Ogbeni Bode specifically mentioned that the UK has changed several prime ministers within the last 14 years including one who spent only a month in office. I agree again. But what Mr Bode forgot to mention is that many of these ex-prime ministers did not wait for the election period. They resigned after agitations in the media in the face of mass anger. They did not wait for the people to occupy the streets of London and use the military to repress them before resigning. They left in disgrace to save face for their class, when they realised the people no longer had confidence in their leadership. Bode George should have rather advised Tinubu to follow this path of resigning since Nigerians are tired of his poor administration. If truly there is nothing in governance, why would you want to sit tight in power and stop people from speaking?
Another excuse raised so far is that people should embrace dialogue. Dialogue can also be done on the street. Nigerians shouted and pleaded to Tinubu to reconsider fuel subsidy removal. He did not listen. They clamoured against student loans and removal of education subsidies. He did not listen. They cried out about the insensitivity of buying luxurious cars for politicians. He did not listen. They cried out about the insensitivity of spending billions to renovate the Vice President’s villa, but he did not listen. So Tinubu has exhausted all indoor dialogue chances given to him. Those who have concentrated their energy on demonising the resistance of working people and youths should rather be writing to President Tinubu instead to quickly reverse all anti people’s policies. It is the government that has consistently been violent on Nigerians with its policies. Protest is a political right of the people. We must fight to defend it as we did, even in the face of military jackboots. We have the historic duty to not be onlookers. Let us with one voice collectively demand EndBadGovernance and fight to win system change.
by Lekan Abdulazeez SONEYE
