#Fearless In October Protests, What Punch Editorial Is Telling Tinubu Govt

NIGERIA is on the brink of another protest. Barely three weeks after the economically damaging #EndBadGovernance demonstrations, another round of protest looms in October. For a country that has yet to recover from the experience of the previous one, holding another protest three months after could be a dangerous turning point.

Codenamed #FearlessInOctober protests, the demonstration, according to the Director of Mobilisation of Take It Back Movement, Damilare Adenola, will maintain the same charter of demands but amend it “as the country decays more.”

The August 1-10 protests were staged to denounce the ongoing pervasive hardship in the land. Nigerians were appreciative of the protest staged in their interest on the first day but were taken aback when it degenerated into the looting of shops, vandalising property, torching of assets, and killings by the security agents in the subsequent days. Over 30 people lost their lives, and police arrested over 1,000 rioters.

Indeed, the protesters have made their point. The organisers could observe an interlude to await the government’s response before embarking on fresh protests.

Acute hunger and hardship are at the heart of the protests. The government must urgently do something about the naira depreciation, incoherent monetary policies, and food and energy prices that impoverish Nigerians. In 2022, the NBS said 133 million people are multidimensionally poor. The World Bank added seven million to that in 2023 because of the removal of the petrol subsidy and the merger of the naira exchange rates.

However, demonstrators should act differently to press their demands. Protests should be peaceful and devoid of violence and looting. At those times, the government must demand the highest level of professionalism from the security operatives.

The protests were more pronounced in the North, with the region recording a high number of underage protesters waving Russian flags, looting shops, and vandalising properties.

In Kano, the protesters looted the Nigerian Communications Commission Digital Innovation Centre and carted away chairs, hardware, and equipment from the park.

About 65 per cent of the poor (86 million people) live in the region and over 50 per cent of the 20.2 million children aged five-14 years out of school in Nigeria reside there. Northern governors must shut the floodgate by designing programmes that could urgently address the socio-economic challenges.

At these harsh times, the government must not only be churning out programmes to assuage the feelings and take care of the people’s needs but should also be seen as doing so. Between now and October, the government has enough time to render the proposed protest unnecessary.

Therefore, the government must improve its arrogant communication campaign that aggravated the problem it was intended to solve. Its media and communication interventions should move away from its combative and reactive stance and be strategic, proactive, results-oriented, and empathic. It was a poor communication strategy to keep blaming the opposition in a hunger protest whose solution looked distant and hopeless.

The government’s communication strategies need to address the fault lines. Communication messages should be out before sponsors take the lead. Government must be proactive by assuaging people’s feelings and accelerating attempts to improve people’s lives. Massive sensitisation programmes should be targeted at the underage and the illiterate.

The Bola Tinubu administration should address the excessive cost of governance, which is one of the protesters’ points. Instead of working on this, Tinubu recently unveiled a presidential jet and expensive SUVs, giving ammunition to the agitators.

The three tiers of government must find a way to promptly address the planned protests by meeting the hunger and hardship demands.

In subsequent protests, the government should change its shambolic security strategy.