“Must the hunger become anger and the anger fury before anything will be done?”
- John Steinbeck
For a President who came into office after a fiercely contested election, winning the votes of less than 10% (8.55m) of the total eligible voters (93.46m) in a country of over 200m, one would have expected that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would govern with some humility, inclusivity and with milk of human kindness that will help in healing the country.
Instead, he waltzed in with an air of arrogance and a know-it-all attitude never seen in any Nigerian leader. This arrogant streak started on his inauguration day on 29 May 2023 when he impulsively announced the removal of fuel subsidy before even assembling his team to review the country’s financials, consulting anyone or having any backup plans that would mitigate the consequences of this knee-jerk policy decision. President Tinubu, the much-advertised politico-economic maestro who was said to have “built” Lagos and “tamed” the Atlantic Ocean, has so far not lived up to that billing. He brought along with him an overhyped team of economic “wizards” from Lagos that has so far mismanaged the economy, wreaking so much economic chaos and hardships on the citizens. It is now crystal clear that this President and his economic team are not ready for prime time because they have all frozen on the big stage when the lights came on.
President Tinubu blindly accepted and is administering to Nigeria and its citizens a prescription from the World Bank of removal of subsidies on fuel, education and electricity, massive devaluation of the currency in a country that is almost entirely import dependent. No economy, no matter how powerful, can withstand these sudden shocks as were imposed onto Nigeria’s fragile economy.
These rushed and poorly thought-through economic policies have resulted in a cost-of-living crisis, widespread hunger, the worst inflation rate in 28 years, worsening insecurity and social unrest that resulted in youths protesting for an end to bad governance from 1-10 of August 2024.
In a country that is not experiencing drought or officially at war, President Tinubu’s economic policy has resulted in millions of Nigerians, predominantly women and children, going to bed hungry with no certainty of having anything to eat when they wake up. In hospitals all across the country, hunger is now the first diagnosis in children and adult patients regardless of the admitting diagnosis.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the non-governmental charity organization that provides humanitarian medical care in conflict zones and countries affected by endemic diseases, raised the alarm that in the last year, it has seen a 200% increase in the number of patients admitted for malnutrition and that it’s feeding Centers in northern Nigeria are overflowing with patients mostly women and children being treated on mattresses on the floor.
The catastrophic flooding that engulfed Maiduguri, attributed superficially to the rupture of the Alau dam, is symptomatic of the failure in governance and accountability. Despite the disbursement of multimillion-dollars earmarked for the dam's rehabilitation, years of neglect and decay preceded the disaster.
It is heartbreaking to watch videos of the devastation caused by these floods to a region that is slowly recovering from the ravages of the fight against Boko Haram. Massive humanitarian crisis of washed habitations, livelihoods, loss of lives, hunger, poor sanitation and disease will require serious and substantial involvement of the federal government and help from the international community.
As a result of the widespread hunger in the country, the United Nations is reported to have launched a $306 million appeal for Nigeria’s food crisis relief. These are situations we hear of in drought-affected or war-torn countries like Sudan, Afghanistan or Yemen, not our Nigeria—the land of plenty.
The response by the state and federal governments to this Tinubu-inflicted hunger on Nigerians has been half-hearted and deceitful. Instead of looking at and reviewing the immediate cause, which is the sudden removal of fuel subsidy, President Tinubu has recently doubled down by pushing the knife deeper into the belly of Nigerians by increasing the price of petroleum products again, another cruel policy decision that is worsening hunger and cost of living crisis.
President Tinubu has remained indifferent, insensitive and unresponsive to the sufferings of Nigerians. He has instead been focused on his personal comfort and enriching himself, his family and business associates while throwing crumbs at the governors, members of the National Assembly (NASS) and some Clerics of both faiths to buy their silence.
The mood of the nation is foul. President Tinubu’s policies have united citizens in anger against the government all across the country. From the citizenry to organized labour, civil servants, traditional rulers, the clergy, business community, academicians, media, NGOs, professional organizations, and the rank and file of all arms-bearing security services, no one is in a good mood.
Nigerian youths came out en masse to protest for an end to bad governance from 1-10 August 2024 to draw the attention of the government to the sufferings of the people. Security personnel were drafted from their primary assignments of fighting crime and rampaging terrorists to the streets to violently suppress the constitutionally protected rights of citizens to peaceful protests. Many youths were killed, arrested, detained and subjected to a mass trial. These protests were a harbinger of bad things to come; I liken them to pulling the pin of a live grenade.
Tinubu’s government is getting into an unnecessary, avoidable and unwinnable fight with organized labour. The arrest and detention of Comrade Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress at the airport in Abuja on his way to an international labour meeting in the UK was an embarrassment on the international stage for this government. Organised Labour has the full support of all Nigerians in fighting for a living wage and Justice for all. So, President Tinubu’s Gestapo tactics will be vigorously resisted by all Nigerians.
There is no way of spinning it. The truth is that security has worsened under this government, contrary to the official propaganda and half-truths. President Tinubu and his managers of security are repeating President Muhammadu Buhari’s mistakes of doubling down on continuing militarization of the fight against banditry.
The state and federal governments are in denial of the fact that good governance has a direct relationship to the security of any country and that hunger is an existential threat to a country’s National security. No military, no matter how powerful, can quell the anger of hungry citizens.
In a town hall meeting on Channels TV, General CG Musa, the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), said that although the military takes out at least 600 terrorists every week, he estimated that 2000 new terrorists get recruited within the same period. No military operation can be considered successful if its actions encourage this level of recruitment into the ranks of the enemy.
At a separate event, Lt. Gen. TA Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, raised the alarm that his troops are getting battle fatigued, resorting to drugs and substance abuse and suffering from high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These are worrisome signs of a cry for help from our fighting men that both the political and military leadership must take seriously.
It is no secret that there is a grand swell of discontent and frustration in the rank and file of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, as is demonstrated all over social media by soldiers complaining of hunger in the barracks and the war front, poor welfare, non-payment of entitlements, prolonged tour of duty, inadequate equipment, low morale and lack of motivation.
I watched the infuriating video clips of Bello Turji, the terrorist bandit leader operating around Shinkafi-Zurmi LGAs of Zamfara state, where he and his band of rag-tag child soldiers were celebrating their “capture” and ransacking of 2 armored personnel carriers they claimed they captured in a fight with the military.
The truth is that these vehicles were abandoned by the soldiers when they got stuck in the mud.
This bungled operation provided these terrorists an easy opportunity to win a cheap public relations war against the Nigerian state and the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN). Cruel cynics, including some clerics on Tick-Tock, were saying that the operation was just staged to resupply Turji. Social media is awash with videos and commentaries, making the AFN a butt of jokes on the internet.
Understandably, soldiers, especially those on the war front, felt belittled, humiliated and unappreciated. This has seriously dampened the morale of our fighting men.
I commend the military on its success in taking out Halilu Sububu the notorious bandit leader and mastermind of the abduction and brutal killing of the late Sarkin Gobir, Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa.But, the gruesome images circulating on social media of acts of unprintable savagery committed by soldiers, which are reminiscent of the heydays of Boko Haram, are unbecoming of a professional military and bad publicity for the AFN internationally and only serve as a recruitment tool for the terrorists.
We need no reminding that winning the peace will not be on the battlefield and is not the sole responsibility of the military. Failure of both state and federal governments to protect citizens is leading to people picking up arms to protect themselves, leading to the proliferation of small and light weapons. This is a recipe for disaster and anarchy.
The world is watching, there is hunger and anger in the land but our leaders don’t seem to care.
THINGS CANNOT AND MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE THIS WAY.
Usman Yusuf is a Professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation.