The Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led regime of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has shown no hesitation in repeatedly baptising poor Nigerians with the waters of socioeconomic pain, ever since coming to power on 29 May 2023. This has earned him the nickname “T-Pain”. But, well over a year into the tenure of his administration, there seems to be no limitations to how far he will plunge the people into these bitter waters. With his regime following through on some very IMF-centric policies such as the floating of the Naira, and the removal of fuel subsidy, it appears that this may be more of a drowning than a baptism into the scathing waters of socioeconomic pain.
In the months following Tinubu’s inauguration, Nigerians have, with their very own eyes, seen astronomical inflation, and the proliferation of crippling hunger. The cost of living has skyrocketed, and the purchasing power, as promised by the current President during his campaigns, has been staggeringly reduced.
With the taste and experience of a lot of meals and activities now sentenced permanently to the backroom of the memory of most, the working people have been made to tighten their belts, and are now approaching the last belt holes.
There is no denying that there is an urgent need for the government to act. The need to assuage the pains of this brutal economic climate is not up for debate. The government ought to be taking steps towards solving the problems of hunger, inflation, unemployment, and the increasing emphasis on the “PREMIUM” in PMS as regards pump price of petrol.
However, the government has failed to take any step that shows any form of commitment to the people. This comes as no surprise, as we are well aware that the democratic dictatorship of the rich capitalists that we live under safeguards only the interest of the rich few. The working people, including workers in both the formal and informal sectors in the urban areas and poor peasants in the rural areas are left to wallow in hunger and poverty. In Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja, there exists a painful contradictory reality. Amidst the affluence of the super-rich elite, there is also present the painful penury of the poor working people– those whom Frantz Fanon describes as the “wretched of the earth”
While beautiful buildings tower over the city’s landscape, lurking in the shadows and alleyways are those who have been worst hit by the downward economic spiral; the poor and downtrodden.
According to the World Population Review, Nigeria had the largest number of homeless people in 2023, with 24.4 million people without a place to call home, living on the streets, in informal settlements, or overcrowded slums. A sizeable share of this number impoverished Nigerians are in Abuja.
Since assuming office, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, has flagged-off numerous construction projects, but has neglected the most important infrastructure in any state or community, –the living standards of its people. In the presence of hunger and homelessness, Wike, has, in the past few months, been commissioning the construction of roads that lead to nowhere and flyovers that elevate no one other than, him, his contractors, and his cronies.
So, in this City of first-class structures and aesthetic, there is the perpetual existence of an alternate reality. In the city centre, at every turn and corner, there is an ever-increasing number of citizens who have been forced by the harshness of economic conditions, to set-up their offices on the street and publicly solicit for money to survive.
With all the attempts at “beautifying” the capital city, the ugly conspicuousness of poverty cannot be painted or tarred away. As expected with the prevalence of hunger in the land, more and more people have been forced to live and look for food to eat on the streets. To rub insult upon injury, the FCT minister has declared war on the poor. Those who are victims of his government’s policies of austerity and crippling taxation are now being criminalised.
While addressing a crowd at one of his project commissioning ceremonies, the he said, “Let me state clearly that we have declared war; Abuja is turning into a beggar city. If you know you have a sister or brother who is a beggar, please, from next week, we will take them away. It is embarrassing that people will come in and the first things they will see are just beggars on the road.”
This order and the subsequent attempts at its implementation are indicative of the government’s misdirection and a lack of any sort of diagnostic skills. The FCT minister has chosen to address a symptom, while completely failing to take any steps at treating the main illness. One could compare this with someone down with malaria taking just aspirin for their headache while completely ignoring the main illness i.e., malaria.
The Wike administration has chosen to forcefully evacuate people from the street who have only been forced to seek shelter out there because of the conditions caused by the harshness of the economic climate which his government has created.
By declaring a war on those who have been most harshly hit by the economic situation created by the government that he is a part of, a war has been declared on the poor and working people in the FCT and the country, by the Minister.
When informed that the Minister had given instructions that they had to be evacuated, one of the citizens on the street succinctly responded,” what have we done?” What he has done is to be poor under a regime that creates an abundance of poverty with one hand, and criminalises poverty with the other.
Indeed, it is the government’s failure to address the issues of food insecurity, food inflation, and high cost of petrol, that has brought us to this point of debilitating hardship. And with these issues remaining unchecked, there is mathematically no way to avoid further influx of people to the street. More people will become unable to afford housing and feeding and they will be forced to the streets. Instead of criminalising the very existence of these poor people, the government must take steps to assuage the pains of the people by correcting the failures in their administration that has caused this widespread hardship. More and more people will flood the streets of their beautiful cities in search of food and shelter if the current regime is not forced to retract its anti-poor policies.
Working-class people and radical youths must stand up against the government’s rhetoric which criminalises those that are suffering the most from the failures of the capitalist system. Those of us who can still afford (for the time being) to stay afloat on this sinking ship, must not also demonise poor working people just like us who are victims of the State’s failure to ensure the interests of the people are prioritised.
As activists, we must continue to struggle, question and oppose the government’s policies which make life terrible to live for poor people., we must take the words of the FCT Minister as they are— a declaration of war against the people. We must be ready to organise to protect the interest of the people in every way that we can. We must never cease to be outspoken and demand better living conditions for the many as we organise and fight to defeat the exploitative capitalist system of the bosses, and build a better, more just and equitable socialist society.
by Oghenero ABU
