Rattled: President Tinubu bows to backlash from protesters’ ordeal

 … as rising public anger spreads

The arrival, on Friday, of 76 detained #EndBadGovernance protesters, consisting mostly of minors, looking malnourished after being detained for over three months, at the Federal High Court in Abuja for their scheduled arraignment before Justice Obiora Egwuatu, shocked many, and capped off a week in which the Bola Tinubu administration received a healthy dose of heat from the media and the general public.

Some of the protesters, being unable to stand, were hurriedly rushed out of the courtroom, and 72 of them were then granted N10m bail each. The protesters were arrested in Abuja, Kaduna, Gombe, Jos, Katsina, and Kano states, and detained during the nationwide August 1 to 10 protests, sparked by widespread economic hardship that led many Nigerians to take to the streets to express their grievances. They were subsequently charged for treason, to the chagrin of many.

Since their appearance at the court premises on Friday, outrage has continued on social media. And being mostly from the North, where the president got most of the votes that saw him over the line in 2023, many in the region have begun to express regrets.

The malnourished protesters during their court appearance

“The Injustice against the children is a betrayal of our collective humanity,” noted Abu Beelal, @hamdalaofficial. “History will never forget Tinubu’s administration on how he treated northerners.”

Human rights groups, Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE Nigeria), Amnesty International, as well as Peter Obi, Labour Party presidential candidate in the last election, among many groups and individuals, also added their voices.

“They were hungry. They spoke up. Now they’re in prison. Teenagers as young as 14 have been detained for exercising their right to protest in Nigeria. This is inhumane. Release these children immediately,” said EiE Nigeria, via its X handle, @EiENigeria.

Sharing pictures of the malnourished protesters, Amnesty noted that President Tinubu’s government “detained these minors since August, for protesting against hunger and corruption, without access to legal assistance or family. Because of the horrifying condition of the detention many of them need urgent medical attention.”

Protesters collapsed at court premises

The group further noted that, “With millions of people on the brink of starvation, widespread malnutrition and deep poverty, President Bola Tinubu’s government should urgently be addressing widespread hunger and the rapidly falling standard of living, instead of prioritizing punishing protesters.”

“The offense alleged against these suspects, including minors, is protesting against bad governance that was directly affecting their livelihood and which our constitution under a democratic dispensation guarantees them. Curiously, most of the people in government today leveraged this aspect of the Constitution standing as champions of good governance while in opposition,” he said.

“Moreover, our status presumes that suspects deserve some dignity, even in a correctional home as human beings. The reason why we should all be concerned about a situation like this is because we are part of a global community, where human dignity should be respected.”

Amid the outrage, President Tinubu, late Friday, asked the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF),  Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to review the treasonable felony charges brought against them. And in an apparently face-saving move, the AGF issued a statement noting that it had intervened and requested the case file of the detainees.

“It has just come to my notice that the police have arraigned those arrested in connection with the end bad governance violent protest in court for various offences, including treason,” he said.

” My office will need to look into some issues regarding the matter so that I can make an informed decision.

“I am aware that the court has remanded the defendants in detention centres and adjourned the case to January.

“It is not within my power to vary the order of the court remanding the defendants in detention centres and adjourning the case to January. I have, however, directed the Nigeria Police to transfer the case file to my office and hand it over to the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF) tomorrow, Saturday, 2nd November, 2024.

“I have also directed the DPPF to immediately set machinery in motion for the court’s consideration of moving the adjournment date forward (to an earlier date).”

But the intervention has not impressed many. Mahdi Shehu, a public affairs commentator, wondered why the AGF would request case file when he ought to vetted the case before the suspects were arraigned.

“The issues relating to treason are vetted by the AGF before suspects are arraigned,” he said. “The move is just an after-thought meant to show the father spirit in Tinubu.”

Some of the protesters in court

Growing Discontent 

The disturbing scenes at the Federal High Court on Friday, capped off a week of heightened mass discontent with the Tinubu administration, whose policies have worsened the country’s economic crisis that accelerated under the watch of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, leading to unprecedented hunger and desperation.

On Wednesday, state oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, for the third time in three months, increased the pump price of petrol from N998 to N1,025 per litre in Lagos and environs, while in Abuja, the price of the product rose to N1,060 from N1,030.

Tinubu had on his inauguration day on May 29, 2023, announced that petrol subsidy had been withdrawn; an impromptu declaration that immediately sent pump price flying from N180 per litre to roughly N600 with the attendant shocks to the economy.

In the immediate aftermath, which also saw the floating of exchange rate, the naira collapsed rapidly, falling from N700 to the dollar to around N1900 in months, before some spirited interventions, including a massive crackdown on cryptocurrency trade, slowed the slide, with the local currency making gains for a season. It currently oscillates around N1, 700 to the dollar.

The impacts of the withdrawal of subsidy and the floating of naira were immediately devastating. Inflation, which came in at 22.22 in April 2023, had by September, risen to 26.72%. And food inflation literally grew wings. From 24.61 percent in April last year, it had surged to 40.87 percent by June this year, while overall inflation came in at 34.19 percent, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

And although September 2024 food inflation was 37.77 percent, while general inflation came 32.7 percent, suggesting deceleration from the June highs, the continuing spike in the prices of staple food items in the market means that more and more people can no longer afford basic food. A bag of rice has, for instance, gone from just over N40,000 when Tinubu took over to now over N100,000 today.

The NBS, had in its latest consumer price index report, also disclosed that the average price of 1kg of brown beans, which increased by 27 per cent on a year-on-year basis from N545.61 in August 2022 to N692.95 in August 2023, surged to N2,444.81 in July 2024, representing 262.98 per cent price increase. As at today, commodity sells for an average of N3, 500, while a bag costs an average of N210, 000.

The NBS  further said that the average price of 1kg of yam tuber rose by 42.80 percent on a year-on-year basis from N403.65 in August 2022 to N576.39 in August 2023, and jumped to N1,802.84 in July 2024.

According to it, the average price of gari increased by 49.16 percent on a year-on-year-basis, from N305.92 in August 2022 to N456.32 in August 2023, and N1,151.79 in July 2024. Presently, average price of a paint of gari  N3,500, while 1 kg of cooking gas now goes for N1,500 from about N1000.

Videos of households eating leaves to survive, and women scavenging leftover food at markets capture the desperation among many in the country. On August 1, a nationwide protest against hunger and bad governance began, with riotous scenes, witnessed in many northern cities where protesters flew Russian flags and urged the military to intervene.

The Tinubu government deployed heavy handed tactics to quell the protests. In its wake, over 22 people were killed, scores injured, and the government slammed treason charges on over 77 arrested, including the minors arraigned on Friday.

The heavy handed response served to instill fear on the populace. The FearlessInOctober protests scheduled to take off from October 1, failed to gather momentum. Tinubu, who led several protests against government as an opposition figure, has successfully criminalized same as president. Desperate Nigerians, left with not much of an option, endure hunger and take to social media to vent their frustration.

Assurances of a better outcome by Tinubu and members of his government have only amounted to blowing hot air, as economic conditions become increasingly dire.

An announcement that the President was planning a cabinet reshuffle became, at least, something to hold on to. But when the president announced the nomination of seven ministers and the sack of five serving ministers, it was a disappointing anticlimax. The new nominees, mostly lacking in pedigree, and assigned to non strategic ministries, failed to inspire confidence.

On Friday, October 25, The Guardian Newspaper published a feature article highlighting how misery, harsh policies are driving Nigerians to desperate choices and leading to calls for military takeover.

“Unmet expectations, failed promises put military’s return on some citizens’ wish-list,” the article, which rattled the presidency, had said.

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in a lengthy response on Saturday, accused the Guardian of inciting “unrest against President Bola Tinubu’s administration,” arguing that the “advocates for regime change under the guise of journalism.”

According to him, “The inflammatory headline, cartoon and content deviate from responsible reporting.”

The Guardian, however, in a statement, dismissed Onanuga’s assertion as a patent misrepresentation of its report, insisting that,  “The story is a factually balanced, dispassionate, well-researched and intensive report chronicling Nigeria’s civilian administration from inception to the current state of affairs without any atom of hateful or inciting elements, remarks, innuendoes, and, or connotations against the national and sub-national governments of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Onanuga soon turned his attention to Punch Newspaper. The Punch had in an editorial titled, “FG worsening the hardship burden,” published on October 23, 2024, argued, among others, that “the government’s reforms have proved unhelpful as its body language is out of tune with its interventions.

For instance, printing money without controlling wasteful spending and cutting excesses has pushed up inflation. This has conspired with other financial missteps to make inflation escalate for 13 consecutive months.”

Nigerians, the editorial said, “have yet to know respite in the 16-month-old administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

Govt moves to change narrative

seeking to douse the growing tension and change the narrative, Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information announced on Friday afternoon, that President Tinubu’s communications team would hold its next town hall meeting in the South East geopolitical zone, adding that the administration’s Ministerial Press Briefing Series and other initiatives, aimed at informing and engaging Nigerians on the activities and policies of the Federal Government, will also resume.

“We have deliberated on critical national issues and we’re streamlining our strategy to to inform Nigerians more about what we do,” he said during a press briefing on Friday in Abuja.

“Of course, this is not the first time that this is happening. We hold periodic ministerial press briefings that we intend to continue with. We also want to continue with the town hall meetings that we have started. Very soon, the national communications team will go to the South Eastern part of the country to engage with Nigerians in town hall meetings.

“So that we take to their doorsteps the message of Mr. President and his government. And we will also hear from them what their reactions and observations are on the policies and programmes of the government.

“We will go to the South East. After that, we will go to the North East. We will continue to do this in the interest of Nigerians, and we want to assure Nigerians that President Bola Tinubu’s reforms, as difficult as they may appear, are aimed to ensure that Nigeria reaches its destination of prosperity that the president talks about all the time.”

The communication team has also begun to run media campaigns promoting policies and programmes of the administration, while exaggerating their outcomes.

Idris had earlier in the week, met with Onanuga and Tunde Rahman, another presidential media aide, to explore “strategies to reinforce the President’s communication framework and ensure the effective dissemination of government policies and initiatives.”

But observers say such media offensive will achieve little if the economic situation in the country doesn’t improve.

“I have watched the advertorial they placed on Arise TV, it’s just full of exaggerations and outright falsehoods,” said Chidi Anthony, a lawyer and public affairs analyst based in Abuja. “If they are planning to start such media engagements, I don’t think it would produce any results. People are not waiting to be told what you are doing, they want to see what you are doing. At the moment, whatever they are doing is not working, and holding town hall meetings will not make it work.”