Says Nigerians suffering, bad advisers sabotaging govt
The senator representing Borno South in the National Assembly, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has raised the alarm, saying certain fifth columnists working hard to sabotage the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ndume said the astronomical increase in the prices of fuel, food, essential goods and services is becoming unaffordable to average Nigerians and the poor that form the majority
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, Ndume said the bad elements are trying hard to pitch the people against the administration of President Tinubu by pushing for harsh reforms and bad policies instead of controlling inflation and exchange rate that are making life unbearable for Nigerians.
The ranking senator said those who are bent on making the President look bad will stop at nothing in inflicting pains on Nigerians through the “so-called reforms until things get out of hand and the blame will be on President Tinubu.”
While advising the administration of President Tinubu, Ndume said many families can barely meet up with daily demands in their houses as a result of the hyperinflation caused by incessant increase in the price of essential goods and services.
Ndume said: “I personally believe President Bola Ahmed Tinubu means well for Nigeria and Nigerians. I know this because I know what he stands for. But some of his advisers who don’t mean well for the people of this country give him wrong advise.
“I’m appealing to him to resist these bad people who want to pitch the people against his administration. The hardship these people are inflicting on Nigerians is becoming unbearable. I’m currently in Borno, and I know what I’m talking about. People are really suffering, hungry, frustrated and angry.
“In Borno State here, many families can’t even feed anymore. The untold hardship of these frequent increases in the prices is unimaginable. Farmers can not even move their farm products anymore because of the high cost of transportation.
“Those who can still do this add the cost of transportation to the prices of food items they sell, and that’s why many people can’t feed again. People can’t travel anymore. To travel by road from Abuja to Maiduguri, for instance, is a fortune. How many of our people can afford that?
“I know that President Tinubu means well for Nigerians, and therefore he should not stay back and allow a few bad advisers to destroy this country. That’s why I’m begging him to do something before it is too late. It is not good to test the patience of Nigerians, and that’s exactly what these bad advisers are doing.
“As soon as the President returns to Nigeria, I urge him to look into these issues and address them urgently. The purchasing power of Nigerians is too poor, and they can’t afford the things that are being pushed on them every day by enemies of state.”
President Tinubu must be living in an alternate universe and in a denial bubble if he thinks “Nigerians worldwide can look back to see how well we have succeeded in realizing the lofty dreams of our founding fathers”. That single line so early in his 64th independence presidential speech set the tone for the speech and it tanked it from the get-go. It is so off-putting, so disconnected from reality, I totally lost interest in reading the rest of the speech. The heroes of our independence could not have envisaged that 64 years after, the nation they fought for would be unable to feed its citizens, still be so consumed by the virus of ethnic animus in geometruc proportion than what they faced, be overrun by bandits and kidnappers with tens of millions of its children panhandling for survival instead of being educated in schools. Our country had the largest population out of school children in the entire world. That was not the country they fought for.
If the President thinks that Nigerians can see any light at the end of the tunnel, he must be totally disconnected from the daily Hobbesian reality in which his citizens live. Our people are locked up in the prison of their home unable to get to work due to unavoidability of fuel to power their cars or pay for public transport. State governments are telling their workers to stay home and not come to work because the cost of transport is greater than their wages.
Children are going to bed on absent stomach with formula 001 which Obey sang about decades ago looking now like a faraway unobtainable Nirvana.
I am a supporter of the Tinubu presidency who strongly believes that our economy was desperately in need of a major reform shock treatment to prevent our match to the apocalypse. Hence, I have defended his reform agenda as necessary even though it is imposing unbelievable pain on the citizenry. I am also not blaming him for the despondency in the country and our collective failure. Only a jaundiced and blind fool would blame a 16-month presidency for the dysfunction of 64 years. In fact I commend President Tinubu for taking the hard road instead of continuing in our delusion of riches that was sinking our country deeper and deeper into the abyss. His reform policy was the painful surgery our country needed to remove its festering malignancy.
However, the president is failing to show the needed empathy to put a soothing balm on the pain of the people. He is failing once again to understand that government is part policy, part public relation and public perception. He is failing woefully in the public relation, public perception part and if not urgently addressed it might further sour people on his presidency and tank it.
People are not so more interested in his enumeration of his many policies nor new proposals like the proposed youth confabs. Nigerians have lost faith in confabs with our very long history of meaningless national confab jamborees with their resolutions left on the shelf to gather dust. The Nigerian youths want jobs, schools that are conducive to learning not the dilapidated pig pens they are forced to learn with no teachers nor resources to prepare them for the highly competitive knowledge driven global digital economy. They are not interested in hobnobbing with well fed, rosy-cheeks, government officials and politics bigwigs.
Nigerians are so consumed with the insurmountable challenge of meeting the most basic requirements of minimal existence which have been priced beyond the reach of the middle class if they even exist not to talk about the masses. They are sick and tired of looking their children in the face at night and tucking them in bed on an empty stomach: Husbands are tired and ashamed to live off of the bounty of their wives’ adulterous exploits to put food on the table. They are looking for an empathetic presidency to acknowledge their pain, to accept and own the responsibility that their reform policy is a major source of their pain. They want President Tinubu to reassure them that their pain has a terminal date and that even though it looks like the darkest night, that the sun shall shine again on the other side. They are not interested in being told to deny their daily reality by being told that Boko Haram and bandits have been eliminated when they are afraid to leave their homes, or to go to their farm without the fear of kidnappers and bandits. Not even great Michelangelo can paint over the Hobbesian reality in which the Nigerian citizens are living. The president will do himself a great favor by acknowledging it even as he is convinced and confident that his policies are the right one to save the country. I also believe that his policies will work if we are patient.
His most urgent task is to calm the restive passengers on the wobbling ship he is captaining on a violent sea or risk a stampede that will capside and doom a voyage to the promised land. He should learn great lessons of Moses in the wildness leading his Israelites people to the promised land. I am his great supporter but he needs to do a better job of feeling the pulse of his citizens and communicating with them.
Presidential speeches, especially in moments of crisis like we are going through, are historical documents that are carefully and methodically crafted, with each word, infection, tonality and even commas carefully chosen, debated and analyzed to meet the exigency of the moment. Once again the people around the president did him great disservice by inserting some of the totally disconnected from reality lines, so early in his speech instead of the president spending a big portion of his speech empathizing with the pain, anguish, suffering, and the disillusionment with the country, with its democracy, with his reform policies and his regime. Where are the promised cost of governance cutting proposals, the bloated bureaucracy shrinking and ministerial reshuffle proposal?
Great and consequential presidents are known for and defined by the great speeches they delivered to rise to the magnitude of the ocassion. In fact many presidencies have been saved by great presidential speeches in moment of national crisis, like the Gettysburg address. This to my mind was a Gettysburg moment for President Tinubu to rise to the magnitude of the occasion and he failed to deliver. He needs to replace his media team and his speech writers.
President Bola Tinubu addressed the nation on October 1, 2024, marking Nigeria’s 64th Independence Anniversary.
In his speech, he outlined the steps his administration is taking to tackle current challenges and implement reforms.
Tinubu acknowledged the economic struggles many Nigerians face, emphasizing the government’s commitment to finding sustainable solutions.
He noted that, since taking office, his administration has reformed the political and defense sectors to foster long-term progress.
In the area of security, Tinubu highlighted successes in the fight against terrorism, banditry, and kidnappings.
He announced that over 300 Boko Haram and bandit commanders have been eliminated, and efforts to completely eradicate these threats are ongoing.
The President also announced the approval of a Disaster Relief Fund aimed at mobilizing both public and private resources for faster responses to emergencies, particularly after recent flooding in the country.
Tinubu revealed that foreign direct investments totaling more than $30 billion have been secured within the last year due to ongoing reforms.
Furthermore, the Central Bank’s policies have stabilized the foreign exchange market, reducing the country’s debt service ratio.
Plans to implement the Supreme Court ruling on local government financial autonomy were also disclosed.
Additionally, Tinubu reassured citizens that his administration is working on multiple initiatives to lower the cost of living, particularly food prices.
He spoke on the government’s push for energy transition, including the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in mass transit, a move aimed at reducing transportation costs across the nation.
In conclusion, Tinubu announced the launch of a National Youth Conference, set to unite the country’s youth in shaping policies on education, employment, and social justice.
This 30-day event is expected to foster collaborative solutions for the nation’s future.
“For any Nigerian who is not where he or she should be, that person qualifies to be classified as a displaced person.”
FROM conception as we ruminated on how to mark the ‘low key’ (apologies to Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s regime) celebrations of the country’s 64th Independence anniversary today, the idea was to express anger, frustration and then rail at the fate of millions of fellow citizens who have been condemned to live perpetually in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps scattered especially across the northern parts of Nigeria. But on deeper reflection and contemplation, I held back and expanded the scope. I did so because it dawned on me, in a jarring manner, that many, probably majority of our citizens qualify to wear the label of IDPs. We can console ourselves by arguing that we have not yet been uprooted from our ancestral homes or comfort zones, and herded into confinements or camps in strange lands.
I will be the first to admit and acknowledge that the consolation of not yet being confined in, or to, a camp in the middle of nowhere, and possibly surrounded by suspicious and hostile communities, is a big deal for which many of us should give thanks with grateful hearts. Let’s quickly illustrate with a real picture of what a typical IDP camp translates into. There are, as we write, many Nigerian toddlers, pre-teens, teenagers, and tweenagers (children in their 20s) who have known no other homes except the IDP camps. They were born there. They were nurtured there. They were raised in IDP camps. The ones who are fortunate attended primary and secondary schools inside the camps or just outside the perimeters of the camps. Those who were not that fortunate were born inside the camps, some of them prematurely. They took ill inside the camps with little or no health facilities. So, they died inside the camps. And they were buried in unmarked graves inside the camps. That’s how fate has conspired with soulless Nigerian rulers to deal a bad hand to some of our citizens.
It has to be acknowledged that Nigeria has had issues of displaced persons in the course of its journey towards nationhood – though the efforts to attain the status of a nation has remained elusive. However, the problem of displaced persons in the past had been temporary and fleeting. In the past people had been displaced due to intra and/or inter – communities’ crises and bloody clashes. In some other situations it had been poorly demarcated boundaries between states that ignites conflicts among border communities. There had been other reasons for displacement of people from their homes and communities. We dare say that many of these displacements had been temporary. Victims were often quickly returned home and resettled. Nothing in the past experiences approximate the scale of what has been happening in our country these past twenty -five years since the return to rule by civilians in 1999.
“The combined activities of our insensitive and wicked rulers on the one hand, and those of terrorists of all descriptions on the other hand, have ensured that in one sense or the other all of us have become IDPs “
The advent of the terrorist Islamist group, Boko Haram, in Borno state in the north east part of the country was at the root of the low level insurrection and insurgency wracking Nigeria. Those who know say that Boko Haram roughly translates to ‘western education is evil’. The adherents of this ideology claim that their bloody opposition to western education was, and still is, rooted in Islam. They argued that the way to the future passes through Islamic and Arabic education. Any other thing is haram. Global jihadist groups which were operating in other regions of the world latched unto the Boko Haram to infiltrate into Nigeria, and to expand the reign of terror. Among the terrorist groups were Ansaru, ISIS-WAP (West Africa Province), and the Fulani Militia. All these sectarian groups were ranked in the top 10 of the most dreaded terrorist organisations in the world when they operated in Nigeria.
With time, and in the face of official helplessness or connivance, terrorising Nigeria and Nigerians became a franchise. In the guise of protecting the south east Igbo homeland from the ravages of terrorists and the perceived evils of the central government, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) founded a militia, the Eastern Security Network (ESN). IPOB is a self – styled self determination group which said it is committed to the excision of the former Eastern region from Nigeria. IPOB was banned by governors in the south east states and then listed as a terrorist organisation by the central government in Abuja. But a court of law in Nigeria has since ruled that IPOB was not a terrorist body. And there’s no evidence yet that the federal government of Nigeria has successfully challenged and upturned the court’s judgment. In any case, no other government in any other part of the world recognised Abuja’s branding of IPOB as a terrorist organisation.
“However, the franchise started by Boko Haram, Ansaru, ISIS-WAP and the Fulani Militia blossomed. These terror groups birthed abductions and kidnappings for ransom as well as murders for rituals. Those in government, terrorists, kidnappers, ritualists, abductors and sundry freelancers in crime competed amongst themselves on which of them will get the credit or plaudits for making Nigeria the biggest crime scene in the history of the world.”
However, the franchise started by Boko Haram, Ansaru, ISIS-WAP and the Fulani Militia blossomed. These terror groups birthed abductions and kidnappings for ransom as well as murders for rituals. Those in government, terrorists, kidnappers, ritualists, abductors and sundry freelancers in crime competed amongst themselves on which of them will get the credit or plaudits for making Nigeria the biggest crime scene in the history of the world. For the avoidance of doubt, they are still at it – plundering Nigeria and leaving citizens desperate, despondent and hopeless.
There are no reliable figures and statistics but it is routinely estimated that tens or even hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have been kidnapped in the last two decades. Some of the kidnap victims were freed after friends and families paid ransom to the kidnappers. Others had been killed even after ransoms had been paid. Right now the kidnap-for-ransom business is a full-fledged industry. Some sub national governments have since started negotiating with kidnappers and bandits to lay down their arms and give peace a chance in exchange for rehabilitation and settlement. A few years ago, a governor of Katsina state was seen savouring a photo-op with bandits. The clincher- the bandits in the photograph were seen with their automatic rifles hanging on their shoulders. About the same time Alhaji Nasir el-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna state was alleged to have paid off terrorists to stop terrorising his state. Currently, the governor of Zamfara state and his predecessor who is one of the defence ministers in the Tinubu federal cabinet are at daggers-drawn about who between them is the primary funder of terrorists in that beleaguered state. They are washing their dirty (sorry bandit) linens in the media and also in the court of law.
An IDP Camp in Central Nigeria
The combined activities of our insensitive and wicked rulers on the one hand, and those of terrorists of all descriptions on the other hand, have ensured that in one sense or the other all of us have become IDPs. Just as with the issue of kidnapping, there are no reliable data on those formally listed as Internally Displaced Persons in our country. But there’s an estimation. Internally Displaced Persons camps in Benue, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Nasarawa, Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara, among others, host well over three million people. Apart from the formal IDP camps, there are hundreds of informal camps scattered across majority of the states in the north of the country, and Abuja. Our country is ranked among the top 10 in the world for IDPs. And we are not fighting any conventional war.
Nigeria is already a difficult place to live in, given serial bungling of successive administrations at all levels. The situation becomes worse for those who have been uprooted from their places of abode. That is the experience of a typical IDP. Farmers are separated from their farms. The same for herders. Business people face the same dilemma. Along with the separation comes loss of income and probably savings. Some people may never recover from the initial sudden dislocation. They go to their graves defeated and broken. There have been cases of sexual exploitation of women and girls in the camps, and indeed outright rape by those who are supposed to provide help and succour. The way our governments behave, it is difficult not to have the impression that IDP camps have come to stay, and they are expected to remain part of our national life. There are no plans whether short, medium or long, in the public domain for permanently securing the country in a sustainable and enduring manner so as to return the IDPs to their homesteads.
Instead, the experience has been that many Nigerians are technically becoming IDPs. How? For any Nigerian who is not where he or she should be, that person qualifies to be classified as a displaced person. The twenty million or so Nigerian children who should be in school but they are not are displaced kids. The many workers whose employers have shut down their businesses because of unfriendly environment have become displaced persons. Small business owners who can no longer cope with the spiraling costs of public utilities including electricity, and who have had to relocate from urban centres to rural communities are now technically speaking IDPs. The same applies to those who have had to move because they can no longer afford house rents in places they have lived in for decades. Every Nigerian youth who has been compelled by suffocating economic and political environment at home to flee Nigeria by foot through the Sahara Desert is a displaced person. Every family which has been split because members are running to different parts of the world for better opportunities falls into the category of displaced persons.
A country that held so much promise about half a century ago has fallen into gloom. Citizens of Nigeria now increasingly feel trapped. Nobody is happy and many are not hopeful except the few in the upper reaches of our governments at all levels. This is part of the story of Nigeria as it turns 64 today.
Ugo Onuoha
A veteran journalist.
He was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Ltd.
Barring last minute changes, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will make a nationwide broadcast on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 at 7 a.m.
The broadcast is part of activities to commemorate the 64th Independence Anniversary of the nation.
Television, radio stations and other electronic media outlets are enjoined to hook up to the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria for the broadcast.
The three prominent opposition leaders in Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso, are reportedly currently engaged in discussions regarding a potential merger ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
The trio aim to unseat the All Progressives Congress (APC) incumbent administration led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This move follows the hunger and widespread insecurity in the country, as stated by a spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday.
The deputy national spokesman for the PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi, made this announcement while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
He indicated that the three opposition candidates from the previous elections—Atiku of the PDP, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), – are prepared to set aside personal ambitions to create a strong coalition capable of challenging the ruling APC in 2027, with the goal of “rescuing Nigerians from hunger.”
Abdullahi further remarked that had the previous leadership of the party effectively managed internal disputes and conflicts, prominent figures such as former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike, Kwankwaso, and Obi would likely still be active members of the PDP, which could have led to a victory over Tinubu of the APC in the last election.
He said, “We’ve lost Kwankwaso, we’ve lost Peter Obi, all of these people, imagine if they are in the party, we will have gone to win the elections.
“This APC said they defeated us with one million plus (votes), just one of these names that I mentioned would have covered that gap for us and we would have been in power today and certainly Nigerians would not have been confronted with this despair and despondency in the land.”
When asked if the PDP is trying to get Obi, Kwankwaso, Wike and others back into the party, Abdullahi said, “Sure, discussion is ongoing. You will see Peter Obi discussing with Atiku, you will see Peter Obi meeting with (Nasir) El-Rufai. Party management is a very difficult thing and we are doing the best in the quagmire that we have found ourselves. Rest assured, there would light at the end of the tunnel. We have learnt our lessons in a bitter way.”
When inquired further about the potential outcomes of Obi and the others rejoining the PDP, Abdullahi stated, “One of them would yield to the other, thereby providing us with a clear direction.
“Our concern as a party and to these people that I have mentioned is to ensure that we salvage Nigerians from this despair and despondency, between maladies of hunger and frightening insecurity in the land. You could see cluelessness and ineptitude on the part of these people managing this country.”
The PDP chieftain said salvaging Nigerians out of the present hardship is more important than the individual ambitions of the trio.
He said, “Atiku is saying if it is better for him to get Nigeria out of this hopelessness, he would do so.
“He (Atiku) must not be in the race. Atiku is saying that it is an entitlement to him as a democrat; the constitution provides for him that he could contest at any time.
“What he is trying to say is that (there) is no ceiling stopping him from contesting. That is his fundamental democratic right but he is not saying that he will force it on the throat of the party or the country.
“I am telling you clearly: Peter Obi is suitably qualified; he can aspire and we will support him if he gets the ticket. Atiku is suitably qualified and if he gets the ticket, we will rally behind him and give him the desired support to salvage Nigerians out of this situation.”
In a move described as fascist and targeted to cow him, the Nigeria Police Force has invited the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero for questioning over an alleged link to terrorism financing and other allegations.
The invite was contained in a letter issued from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Department of Force Intelligence.
The letter, which was signed by Adamu S. Muazu, threatened that failure to honour the invitation would lead to arrest.
According to the letter, the IRT is investigating a case of criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrimes.
Reacting to the letter, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, in a post on his official X handle, called for action against President Bola Tinubu’s government.
He wrote: “The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu regime is going completely fascist, and we must all together and stop him now! See a letter from @PoliceNG summoning @NLCHeadquarters President @JoeAjaero94024 practically accusing him of treason, terrorism financing and all sorts of heinous crimes.
“In truth you have united Nigerians with your bad government and hunger.”
In a scathing open letter addressed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Hon. Uche Onyeagucha, former National Welfare Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has called for some radical changes in the Nigerian government.
Onyeagucha, who gained prominence as a pro-democracy activist and previously participated in high-profile protests, criticized the current administration’s handling of national issues.
The letter, dated August 5, 2024, comes amidst widespread protests against hunger and poor governance, which began on August 1.
Onyeagucha asserted that the president’s recent address to the nation exacerbated public discontent, stating, “Your contempt and or ignorance about the level of hunger and anger against your administration was perfectly captured in your Broadcast to the Nation on Sunday, 4th August 2024. Your broadcast to the Nation has added serious fuel in the flame.”
In his letter, Onyeagucha presented President Tinubu with two stark choices: “You should dissolve your Government immediately and proclaim the formation of a Government of National Unity,” he writes. “I pray that God will touch Nigerians to accept this option in the light of the contempt which you displayed against Nigerians in your Broadcast.”
Alternatively, Onyeagucha suggested, “You should resign as President and proceed immediately on Exile to enable Nigeria start on clean slate again.”
He warned that failing to act on these options could lead Nigeria into severe political, economic, and social crises, stating,
“Your failure to consider any of these options would very likely drive Nigeria into a Political, Economic and Social crisis of huge proportion.”
“In our view, the president cannot be approbating and reprobating at the same time. The President cannot offer an olive branch while at the same time holding a dagger to our throat,”
The Lagos State organisers of the protest against hardship and bad governance in the country have announced plans to resume their demonstration at Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, on Monday, August 5, 2024, despite recent comments from President Bola Tinubu.
This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday, by Hassan Taiwo, Ayoyinka Oni, and Adegboyega Adeniji on behalf of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Organising Committee, saying that the group expressed disappointment that it took President Tinubu three days of protests to address the nation.
The statement is coming after the President’s broadcast earlier on Sunday, where Tinubu acknowledged the protesters’ concerns and urged them to suspend their demonstrations in favour of dialogue.
“We consider the President’s decision to address the nation an important victory for our movement,” the organizers said.
“Without our courage and resolve to dare the odds, even this acknowledgement would not have happened. So far, we have demonstrated that a President is not greater than the rest of the country,” the statement read.
The group faulted the President for what they described as a dual approach: offering dialogue while also demanding an end to the protests.
They also condemned recent violence against protesters, including attacks by thugs during a Sunday morning worship session and an incident where a protester was struck on live television.
“In our view, the president cannot be approbating and reprobating at the same time. The President cannot offer an olive branch while at the same time holding a dagger to our throat,” the trio said.
The organizers then called on Nigerian youth and the general public to join them at 7 a.m. on Monday at Gani Fawehinmi Park for the fifth day of protests.
After much ado, President Bola Tinubu has finally agreed to address the nation following a nationwide protest christened #ENDBADGOVERNANCE by Nigerian youth.
Now on the fourth day, the protest was kicked off, August 1, and expected to last till the 10th of August.
A statement pushed out by the Special Adviser to the President, Mr. Ajuri Ngelale indicated that President Bola Tinubu will address the nation in a broadcast on Sunday, August 4, 2024, at 7:00 am.
Television, radio, and other electronic media outlets are enjoined to plug into the network services of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) for the broadcast.
The broadcast will be repeated on the network services of the NTA and the FRCN at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm on the same day, it was further stated.
