In his nationwide address on Sunday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu told Nigerians the several steps his government had taken over the past 14 months to stabilise the economy and improve standard of living.
In his 25-minute-long address, Tinubu said he understood Nigerians’ anger and frustration, and the reasons the #EndBadGovernance protest was staged.
But what did we really learn from his address?
1. THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE ISSUES
If you really want to know what was running through the president’s mind, just listen to the opening sentence of his speech: “I speak to you today with a heavy heart and a sense of responsibility, aware of the turmoil and violent protests unleashed in some of our states.”
There is an apparent desperation to term the protests violent. Of course, it became violent in a few states in the north; but why ignore the majority of the states where the protests were nonviolent? Why not start with addressing the legitimacy of the protest demands, first, and why not talk about the peace in majority of the protesting states, before going on to talk about violence?
It appears the ‘violence’ tag was always part of the script.
2. NO PLANS TO PROBE PROTEST KILLINGS
The president said he was pained by the loss of lives and the destruction of property so far recorded in the protest.
He commiserated with the families and the relations of the Nigerians who had died in the protest.
Alarmingly, however, the president did not mention whether the respective security agents responsible for such deaths would be probed or not.
3. NO MENTION OF REDUCTION IN COST OF GOVERNANCE
President Tinubu parades the largest cabinet in the history of Nigeria with 48 ministers. His administration renovated the Vice President’s residence with N21 billion. It expended N70 bn on SUVs for national assembly members at N160 million per member.
At no point in his speech did he mention whether the government planned working towards reducing the cost of governance or not.
This then meant that he was not willing to make concessions as regards the protesters’ demand for reduction in government spending.
4. FIXATED ON POLITICAL ENEMIES
The president in his speech stated that his government would not fold its arms and “allow a few with a clear political agenda tear the nation apart”.
But the president’s 25-minute speech failed to address their demands that included reduction in the cost of food price, cost of living, government’s wasteful spending, protection of farmers and electoral reforms.
This means only one thing: the president is focused on blaming political opponents for the violent protests rather than providing solutions to Nigerians’ demand for good governance and better standard of living.
5. THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T JUST GET IT
Tinubu spent majority of the speech reeling out things his administration had done in the past: the Consumer Credit Corporation with over N200billion to help Nigerians to acquire essential products without the need for immediate cash payments; the release of an additional N50billion Naira each for NELFUND; securing $620million under the Digital and Creative Enterprises (IDiCE); the 3Million Technical Talents scheme.
Also Read: Soyinka Slams President Tinubu’s Address, Response to Protests
But all these things were in place before the protester trooped to the streets, meaning they don’t count towards the people’s main problems: hunger and economic hardship. Mr. President, it’s not about what you have already done; arising from these protests, what will you do to put food on the table for Nigerians and reduce their overall economic hardship. But why can’t the president just get it? Is it really that hard? Is the president that detached?
