É kwúbá ókwú nkíríká, ndí ókènyè èlébá ònwe ha ányá. When the discussion shifts to the looks of skeletons, the old and skinny people in the gathering cast a glance at one another. That is the situation currently as Nigerians look forward to the beginning of the eighth month of 2024. The government and a section of Nigerians are currently locked that kind of fierce look fighting fowls give each other. Some Nigerians are believed to be so angry with the extant situation of things in the country that they want to stage street protests. Their angst is that the country is way too deep and enmeshed in hardship. Some have described the situation extremely as an economic nadir. The intending protesters are also dismayed that the government is not doing enough – if they are genuinely trying at all – to bring an end to the hardship or bring it to the barest minimum. In contrast the prospective protesters believe that the government is rather acting like the situation of the dog and the grasscutter. The dog, they lament, feeds her child well but pounces on the hapless child of the poor grasscutter.
On the other side of the coin, the government, like the skinny old person in the gathering, is looking at himself and asking if indeed he is not the owner of the wielded proverbial jab. The Federal Government in particular is very uncomfortable with what he is hearing and seeing with regards to the planned protests. To show how much the people in government are acting like the old and skinny, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s man of communication and strategy, threw a wild jab at Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023. Onanuga said Peter Obi and his supporters, known collectively as the ‘Obedient Movement’, were the brains behind the protests. Obi had been quiet about the protests and had not said anything other than express the need for the government to do something about the debilitating hardship. Obi responded by threatening a lawsuit. That is still there as it was – a threat – to which Onanuga has said ‘bring it on’. Obi, some believe, should have put himself in the forefront of the protest, take ownership and show that he is with Nigerians in this trying period.
It’s hard to claim that Onanuga made unfounded allegations against Obi and his supporters because he is one of the insiders in the government. Another thought to support Onanuga and his allegations is the contention that there is no smoke without fire. But what appears to be the underlying reason for the government›s fear is ubi multitudo, ibi pecata… Where there is a multitude, there will be sin. The government is afraid of what might become of the protests when they kick in. The fear of anarchy is the beginning of wisdom.
However, Onanuga and the government did not deny that there is untold suffering in the land. He is also not grovelling so much to not understand that the citizens have a constitutional right to assembly, or even to protest. He knows that such rights exist and he had referred to it in the recent past during the regime of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. But the Tinubu government and propaganda are two peas in the same unfortunate pod. Expand the pod and you will find the Senate and the House of Representatives working to dissuade Nigerians from protests. Then the Police and the armed forces are at their end threatening hell as if Nigerians had no rights.
What exactly is the government afraid of? Are they afraid of riots or protests or both? I think we should draw lines. There are plans to protest the hardship in the land, Nigerians were told. President Bola Tinubu said the sponsors have second addresses, that they hold no love of the country in their hearts. Then the government, after initial doubts of its feasibility, went delirious about it. They reached out to all known groups and associations. A number of state governments have also organised town hall meetings where they are trying to talk people out of taking to the streets. Traditional institutions too have been dragged into the suasion band to help persuade people not to protest. Even the Oba of Benin, one of the rare and revered fortresses of our culture and tradition was made to issue a statement persuading protest planners to give the government more time to implement its programmes. That statement has cast the Oba in another light in the eyes of the modern-day children called the GenZ. It is not the wish of anyone from the Oba’s kingdom to see his king swim with politicians of any hue because of the reverence for the throne. It wouldn›t pan out well.
The proposed protests have also handed our ancestors and the gods their own to-do list. In Lagos, one post on X warned people against free movement on August 1 to 15 because there would be an Orò festival on those days. The gods are not crazy to have set a timetable for their various genuine activities. Those dragging the gods into this protest issue must be crazy for leaving the road and are heading to the thicket.
Whatever anyone might say, the threat of protests alone has achieved a lot. It has also changed many things regarding the texture and colour of the Tinubu government. There is also no doubt that mode of thinking in the inner chambers of the Federal Government has been impacted. Ministers have visited their states for unusual interactions with the people of their various states. Tinubu and his government have been set off on a sprint around the country to get some respected people to add their voices to the call for a ceasefire or, at least, a restraint. That is why nearly all the organisations in the country have said one thing or the other about the protest. The Arewa Consultative Forum, the Ohaneze, the Afenifere, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have all weighed in on it. A common denominator among all the people speaking against the protest, is the hardship we are all battling with. The government has also made the armed forces to speak and the state commands of the Nigeria Police Force have all served warnings.
Even if Nigeria is not shut down by protests by next weekend, the protests are already a success story. For instance, if the traditional Oro festival posted about on X succeeds in halting Lagos, Nigerians know the reason for the success of the festival and why it was brought. No one can tell the story of the 15-day traditional restriction without telling why it was called. That is a success story for the organisers of the protests.
To the planners of the protests, I will give plenty of kudos. Take your flowers whoever you are and wherever you might be. You should be proud because, street protests or not, you have successfully got the ailing ears of the obstinate government. You have made things happen. The government, its functionaries, their supporters and acolytes have no other discussion right now other than the “EndBadGovernance’ or ‘national› protest. At this level of interest generated, I think they should have to have a deep reflection on how to go on with the protest if they still intend to go ahead. The organisers have proven that when the oracle becomes too powerful, he will be shown the tree from which he was carved. That, to me, is the vital point that has been proven by the proposed protest. The organisers are said to be faceless, and they are so faceless that the relevant government apparatuses have not named them. That’s okay. Results sometimes matter more than who did the spadework. If they had a face, it would be on a head and that head might have rolled.
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