IF YOU DARE PROTEST!

 

Across the world, the Coronavirus pandemic has had its toll. Business isn’t yet as usual for companies and industries and governments across boards have been struggling with the aftermaths, having to slash budgets and collecting loans to meet basic budgeted needs. For citizens, jobs have been lost and the cost of living has skyrocketed.

In Nigeria, the case is not different. The government led by President Mohammadou Buhari has had to contend with the many challenges on different fronts. In the heat of the pandemic when a lockdown became necessary, the government in the different levels had offered palliatives to citizens even as the country struggled to contain the virus. For the first time in recent years, the price of petrol would reduce at the pump stations and Nigerians were glad that it seemed the Coronavirus pandemic was teaching the government how to help the plight of her citizens.

With the cost of living skyrocketing in Nigeria, millions of Jobs still in the balance as a result of the ongoing partial lockdown on different sectors of the economy such as the education, entertainment and sports, citizens thought they had had enough to contend with.

We were still adapting to new transport cost, higher cost of goods in the market, and paying more for goods and services with the only recently increased value added tax VAT when the government announced that they would go ahead with an increase in electricity tariff by up to eighty percent and would finally remove fuel subsidy thus subsequently increasing the fuel price to N167 from N145.

An outrage has followed the introduction of these new policies. Nigerians have shown dissatisfaction with these government policies which shave been introduced at a time when we were in need of succor.

It is sad that the central government led by President Mohammadou Buhari isn’t aware of the stats and figures on ground. Federal government workers earn so much and pay themselves huge salaries that they don’t feel the differences in cost of goods and services in the market. They think that just as they are having a good time at the center, Nigerians are also having a swell time. The average Nigerian however is most affected by even the slightest of increases in tariff or fuel price introduced by government.

While these issues continue to be a hot burner, Nigerians have realized the bitter truth about this regime, that their voices are been stifled from saying how they feel about these policies of government.

President Buhari had given an order that protesters should be rounded off, men whose weapons are only their voices crying out for help in order to live a better quality life, one which the government promised during election campaigns. Twitter and Instagram is abashed with banters against this government that has closed its eyes entirely to the plights of Nigerians who voted them into power.

With all the promises made by this government during the elections campaigns having not come true, the government should have been working on ensuring her promises are made especially as 2023 arrives, a defining year for the All Progressive Congress that brought the president in.

You will recall that during the Goodluck Jonathan era, Nigerians were free to protest on the streets. There were banters against the president on social media and Nigerians had their full against that government. Even the present president enjoyed the benefits of this freedom, the reasons he could win the elections in the first place. Indeed that era characterized ‘freedom of speech’.

The Buhari era has however failed to allow Nigerians this dividend of democracy, the freedom to be heard. Mr. Former General is still running Nigeria like a barracks, but pictures of President Buhari undertaking a protest in the Goodluck era is all over the internet and the videos of his many promises he made are still making headlines.

As Nigerians we care that those we voted into office acknowledge that they aren’t sitting in those offices to represent themselves or by their own volition. The people voted them there, and the people deserve to know what’s going on around the corridors of power.

When citizens are kept in the dark, the result will always be disastrous. The reasons for the many calls for a revolution are not far-fetched, the government should revolve around the people but it is revolving around a certain group of people.

Common sense should come to play when developing policies. Who will bear the brunt of these policies are the people. When the people say they have had enough, no force will be strong enough to pull them down.

The government may think she has the armed forces on her side but members of the armed forces are also humans and they buy from the same market ordinary citizens buy from, they face the same heat like every other person does. The armed forces will be forced to bow to the voice of the people.

Before this happens, Buhari and his executives must think again. Power always belongs to the people.