By Ikechukwu Amaechi
After quelling what, to all intents and purposes, was a peaceful, pro-people and popular protest by economically challenged Nigerians over the prevalent insufferable high cost of living, President Bola Tinubu moved quickly to consolidate his grip on power. Taking a page from the archetypical fascist playbook, he summoned a meeting of the National Council of State (NCS), on Tuesday, to pass a vote of confidence in him.
For those who may not know, the NCS which was midwifed by General Murtala Muhammed on July 30, 1975 is an advisory body. In a broadcast after overthrowing General Yakubu Gowon, Murtala said, “The structure of government has been re-organised. There will now be three organs of government at the federal level namely: The Supreme Military Council, The National Council of State, and the Federal Executive Council.”
The 1979 Constitution which carried through the policy enlarged the Council’s membership to include the President, Vice-President, former Presidents and Military Heads of State, former Chief Justices of Nigeria, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Governors and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.
The Constitution gave the National Council of State the responsibilities of advising the President in the exercise of his powers with respect to census, prerogative of mercy, awarding of national honours, and appointment of members of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Judicial Council (NJC), and National Population Commission (NPC). The Council also advises the President whenever requested to do so on the maintenance of public order within the federation or any part thereof and on such other matters as the President may direct.
While former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan attended the Tuesday meeting in person, and Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar joined virtually, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida kept their distance. Obasanjo’s absence didn’t come as a surprise to any discerning observer. He, like Prof. Wole Soyinka and other well-meaning Nigerians, has been critical of the way Tinubu handled the #EndBadGovernance protest and the needless bloodshed.
But Kwara State governor, who also doubles as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, obviously happy with the outcome of the meeting, crowed that the Council lauded Tinubu on the way he is governing the country including the violent suppression of the protest. “The high note of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces,” he told journalists.
Really?
How can anyone, in good conscience, say that Tinubu is governing Nigeria well and the country is headed in the right direction?
To be sure, I wasn’t surprised that Buhari decided to cut his political soul mate, Tinubu, some slack. It is tantamount to failure reinforcing failure. But what would make the other leaders binge on the same falsehood? Could it be lack of courage to speak truth to power – in the manner of the three wise monkeys of the Japanese maxim that “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil?” Do these leaders realize the damage to the country whenever they lend their considerable weight to the egregious acts and shenanigans of anyone in power?
Tinubu drafted in some of his poster lieutenants – Ministers of Solid Minerals, Finance, Budget, Works, Trade and Investment and Agriculture – to make presentations. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, briefed the Council on the security situation in the country, as Dele Alake put it, “Especially on issues before, during and after the nationwide protests.”
But Gowon and his ilk should know, the fibs by Tinubu’s spin doctors notwithstanding, that Nigeria is teetering on the brink of disaster and what is needed to pull it back is speaking truth to power rather than massaging elephantine egos and dubious endorsement of apparent leadership failures.
Throwing more light on what transpired, Finance Minister Wale Edun said he updated the Council on the progress the Tinubu administration was making on the economy in terms of the macroeconomic policies and the “encouraging results.”
“In broad terms the economy is growing. The balance of payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance are in surplus. The exchange rate is stabilising, and inflation, though high, uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr. President and his team, is slowing and it is set to fall,” Edun crooned, adding that “in particular, there has been support for the economy from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic investors, who are participating in important private-public partnerships, particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning to recover.”
Apparently they wowed the August body with their submissions hence the confidence vote. But isn’t that ridiculous considering the fact that Wale Edun’s tales by moonlight remains the same tiring and monotonous sing-song of the Tinubu orchestra since May 29, 2023. The government continues to claim, falsely, that the economy has turned the awful corner where the execrable Buhari government left it. But how can anyone who is not just visiting from the outer space believe Tinubu when he claims that Nigeria’s economy is growing and FDI is beginning to recover when the reality is that multinationals that have thrived in Nigeria for aeons are fleeing in droves?
Definitely, these claims are far from the reality that stares Nigerians in the face. The same policies that Edun is touting have not only triggered the worst cost of living crisis since 1960 but also pushed millions of already impoverished Nigerians deeper into poverty and unmitigated misery. There is hardly any Nigerian, except those in government and their rent-seeking partners-in-crime outside government that can claim to be better off today than 15 months ago.
Tinubu’s macroeconomic policies have wiped out Nigeria’s middle class, literally. Hunger is stalking the land even as the spectre of corruption continues to haunt the country to perdition. Nigerians have never been hungrier. Of course, that was the reason for the protest. But expecting members of an elite club of serving and retired government top guns, most of who live on government rent, may be expecting too much.
But the really embarrassing thing is the fact that Gowon, Abdulsalami and Jonathan agreed with Tinubu that the hunger protest was a movement to effect regime change forcefully. We can excuse Buhari because he and Tinubu are birds of the same plumage. In 2020, Buhari levelled the same allegation against #EndSARS protesters.
Alake, who claimed that “the Council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government,” further said, rather hubristically that “if anybody is not satisfied with the government, there is always an election coming, so you wait for an election and cast your vote” as if the votes will ever count.
It is sad that these statesmen never cared a hoot about peaceful protesters, fellow Nigerians, who were killed in cold blood by trigger-happy security men for no crime other than asking for good governance. Hundreds of youths have been rounded up and clamped in prisons by a regime that is bent on using them as a war trophy to scare aware any would-be protesters in the future.
Are they saying that peaceful protest is no longer a civic right? Have our leaders become so delusional not to appreciate the fact that Nigeria under Tinubu’s watch is in trouble and that no amount of pressure by the state and its security apparatuses can constrain hunger-induced mass protests?
The hypocritical National Council of State leaders who were quick in condemning the protest and rationalizing government’s highhandedness meanwhile didn’t raise as much as a whimper over the noxious campaign to expel Ndigbo from the Southwest. Government’s promise to investigate the malaise has fizzled out because the chief instigator is the president’s top media adviser – Mr. Bayo Onanuga.
Nigeria has become a police state with the government devising means to exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. Public officials are so disrespectful and contemptuous of the citizenry. The lawmakers continue to legislate their vexatious and toxic personal ideas, wishes and preferences as Tajudeen Abass, Speaker of the House of Representatives, wanted to do with his obnoxious counter subversion bill. Those in the judiciary have absolutely no respect for the Constitution they say is their prerogative to interpret and chieftains of the executive arm of government continue to talk down on the people as the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, did on Wednesday when he warned Nigerians not to mistake the administration’s “commitment to peace for weakness.”
As I noted here last week, Tinubu is an autocrat who fervently craves absolute power. If unresisted, by the time he is done with Nigeria, the Abacha dictatorship will pale into insignificance. Nigerians have a patriotic duty to resist this bourgeoning tyranny, lest we will be chorusing “Heil, mein Führer!” (‘Hail, my leader!’) any time the president farts as Germans did to Adolf Hitler. Nigeria can ill-afford a “Dear Leader,” an absolute ruler who demands unquestioning loyalty.
