A former Minister for Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, speaks with ISAAC SHOBAYO on the ongoing nationwide protest against government policies and economic hardship.
You are one of those who addressed protesters in Jos on Thursday. What is your assessment of the situation?
The development arising from this nationwide peaceful protest to me is anticipated. It was quite peaceful in some states and violent in others. But I anticipated this because of the manner in which the government conducted itself in the management of the peaceful protest that resulted in the situation we are dealing with. The government has been notified about the protest for more than thirty days, but took no step to address the issues. It rather resorted to a fire brigade approach at the dying minute, calling on traditional rulers and clergy — and, thereafter, when that seemed not to work as they wanted, they embarked on intimidation. Governors were saying protests are barred in their states when protest is constitutional and the right of every citizen as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
They were busy dissipating energy in trying to discredit the protest instead of addressing the issues the protesters raised. And these issues are quite germane. We let them know that they don’t have the right to stop the protest. After this, they embarked on going to court in some states, including Abuja, claiming that they would stop the protest and eventually got an injunction to restrict it to the MKO Stadium in Abuja and other places.
So, there is mismanagement of the goodwill of Nigerians who indicated an interest that they were going to protest peacefully. The governors who indicated that they were banning protest have something off their sleeves, and in these states where they said they were banning protest, protests have turned violent. So, for me, the general assessment of the protest is that Nigerians have proved a point, despite all the bullying, intimidation, and other crude approaches to stop them.
The people who came out to protest were people who want good governance, and who want corruption, which is the bane of many problems besetting the country to be addressed. They came out in large numbers to express their minds, and they told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu what those around him could not tell him because the president is surrounded by sycophants.
I remember the Minister of Aviation saying 500 associations had disassociated themselves from the protest, but you can see the huge number of people that came out. So, to me, it was a huge success and a signal sent to the government that the office of the first citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been activated and accountability must become a mandatory requirement of holding public offices.
But the position of the government and others against the protest is that it is too early to assess the government.
This is a misconception peddled to discourage the protest, which also failed because protest is not about how long the president had been in office. The protest is about the policies of this government right from day one when it started unleashing hunger, poverty, and untold hardship on Nigerians. Nobody is saying the protest is about the performance of the government — what the protesters are complaining about is very clear and fundamental. Why are we bringing the issue of tenure or how long he has been in office to the table? So, Nigerians should continue to die gradually of hunger before 2027. We don’t have a problem with the tenure, but the policies put in place are what the people are complaining about.
Many policies have been introduced by the Federal Government. Are you saying they are all choking?
The withdrawal of fuel subsidies by Mr President from day one when there was no government in place caused the hardships Nigerians are experiencing today. When he announced the withdrawal, there was no government in place. It was only him and the vice president. There were no ministers or advisers to discuss the issue thoroughly. That policy is the major calamity of Nigeria today. He has to review it. It has caused much hardship in the land. He must listen to the people and review it. Also, the floating of the Naira is another unpopular policy that must be reviewed. The sudden increase in the electricity tariff is also another unpopular policy. These three policies need to be reviewed.
At the moment, there is anger and hunger in the country. What do you think the government can do to cushion the effects of the hardship?
First, as a patriot, the president should address the country. The argument by his Minister of Health and others telling us that there is no budget for fuel subsidies and therefore Nigerians should wait is embarrassing, and this should be discontinued. Nigerians are not going to wait. The president can raise a supplementary budget. He raised one to get money to buy aircraft — that was an amazing exigency. He should raise a supplementary budget and send it to the National Assembly to be approved so that he can restore subsidy. He should also direct the Minister of Power to do something about the electricity tariff, even though it is not constitutional because you are discriminating against Nigerians. That should be reviewed and go back to the billing system we had before now. He should also assure Nigerians that he is going to intensify the fight against insecurity.
There are complaints of a bloated cabinet, yet more appointments are being made. Don’t you think the president should trim his cabinet to a manageable size?
The president needs to trim down his cabinet. He has called on Nigerians to sacrifice, and he also must sacrifice for the fact that the government does not have money. He has to cut the cost of governance to reduce the number of ministries to a manageable level and fall back on the Orosanye Report. Even though he has approved the implementation, his conduct suggests the contrary because every day he is appointing people into the agencies that have been scrapped by the Orosanye Report. So let’s see it in concrete terms that his government is sacrificing, not a government with a bloated cabinet. Let’s see the sacrifice from the government in the first place. The president must fall back on the Orosanye Report to show prudence and seriousness.
Your party, the All Progressives Congress has been in power for nine years. What can Nigerians point at as its major achievements?
APC has failed Nigeria as a political party. It has also breached the social contract of democracy. So, it is left for Nigerians to decide, and that is why it is called democracy. The people have demonstrated it by going out to protest against government policies, which to me is a vote of no confidence in the administration. I think the next step is to review the situation and make a good decision about them.
Nigerians have protested. What do you think should be the next line of action?
The protest is a very healthy one because the office of the first citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which is the highest office, has been revalidated by the people. I wish the government could act immediately — otherwise if this protest continues for the next ten days, more people will be coming out, and when you have more people on the streets, more than the number of people that registered to vote, there will be problems. Since the election is not around the corner, there is going to be a serious constitutional crisis. But the best thing for the president at the moment is to reverse the fuel subsidy policy and review security after consultation.
But the supporters of this administration are claiming that the President Tinubu-led government has put various measures in place to alleviate the hardship in the country and as well put necessary machinery in place to revamp the ailing economy.
The response is like the response of a panicky person who has no concrete solution on the ground because each time they try to respond, you see confusion in what they are saying. They have been distributing palliatives since June 2023, but the palliatives have always been on the pages of newspapers. It has not gotten to the common people. Even if it goes to the common people, it can only go to the members of the political party in government in the states, and members of the political party do not constitute one-third of the population of a state. This is the irony.
Then, on the issue of selling a bag of rice for N40,000, many people have proved them wrong by going to the markets — there is no rice selling for N40,000. Where do they get the rice in the first instance? The government doesn’t even have the national reserve again because it has been commercialised and privatised. I think they need to be more practical and concrete.
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