Patience, surely, is a virtue. But not when you’re on the wrong course. If a man sets out to go North to Kano but inadvertently heads West to Lagos, patience will not take him to his destination. Only course-correction will..
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In the face of looming mass protests, those who say the APC/Tinubu government should be given more time for current policies to deliver prosperity miss this point completely. After fifteen months in the saddle, most of the economic and governance policies of this administration may rightly be labeled as poorly-reasoned and counterproductive. The Naira is in tatters. Hard working Nigerians are unable to afford food and basic medicines. The people are alienated.
Poor policy choices, leadership disconnect and mass poverty don’t make a society better with time. Nor do they mutate to produce good results. They produce incrementally worse outcomes on human lives and social stability – unless they are reversed. That’s what the planned August 1 “Hunger Protests” are about.
President Tinubu has shown little inclination to course-correct. Instead, he has dug deeper into his trenches. No reduction in the cost of governance. No attempt to live by personal good example. Cronyism is at its peak. Contrary voices are either silenced, blackmailed or bought over. Poverty is weaponized. Ethnic, regional and religious cleavages are routinely exploited either to excuse failure or for regime preservation. It’s like Tinubu wants to develop Nigeria without Nigerians.
The only thing that could possibly get better by giving this state of affairs more time is the perpetrators’ grip on power. Tinubu’s antecedents in politics clearly show that, given more time, he simply empowers more of his cronies, neutralizes every opposition, pockets key state institutions (like the electoral commission, Judiciary and Security Services), stifles dissent and sets up an autocracy masquerading as a democracy. Machiavelli must be proud.
That is the story of Lagos State since 1999. That is the story of every ACN or APC state under Tinubu’s thumb. That is the time-tested Tinubu template. Tinubu cannot give what Tinubu does not have. Today, more than ever before, Nigeria is on the cusp of total state capture.
Government reactions since notice of the Hunger Protests were served are ominous. Open and veiled threats by government spokespersons, presidential family members, security agencies and even criminal non-state actors all signal a regime in utter panic and ill at ease with basic democratic principles.
They say peaceful demonstrations are unwanted because they could be hijacked by hoodlums and arsonists to unleash violence and destruction. In truth, everyone knows who the hoodlums and arsonists are working for. They cannot lift a finger without a signal from their handlers. So, who’s fooling who?
The Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, once famously said that “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.” Who is the evil man here? The demonstrators or those who wish to demonize them? Time will tell.
If a “democratically elected” government is willing to turn the dogs against citizens who wish to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed liberty in peace, then surely democracy is not at play. We must find a new name for what is going on in Nigeria.
