From all indications, the planned Nationwide ‘Hunger Protest’ would worsen the nation’s fragile economy and the living condition of Nigerians.
Nigerian youths are planning to stage a protest on August 1, 2024 against the harsh economic reforms introduced by the current administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The reforms were intended to stimulate economic growth, increase government revenues and attract the needed investments into the country.
Sadly, rather than reversing the economic decline, the reforms are stifling the economy and increasing the hunger in the country.
For instance, the nation’s inflation rate has been in upward trajectory since the removal of fuel subsidy in May 29, 2023.
The inflation rose from 22.41% recorded in May before the removal of fuel subsidy to 22.79% in June 2023 after the removal, and currently at an all-time high of 34.19% (June 2024).
While Nigerians were grappling with that, electricity subsidy was also removed for Band A customers, constituting 15% of the nation’s 12 million electricity customers.
Consequently, from N68/kWh, the electricity tariff was increased to N225/kWh, representing a rise of over 200%.
These, in addition to the unification of exchange rate which saw the free fall of naira against other major currencies, aggravating the already heightened inflation rate, cost of doing business and unemployment rate in the country.
The reforms have eroded the purchasing power of Nigerians, and have ushered in severe hunger as Nigerians barely eat three square meals a day due to skyrocketed prices of foodstuffs.
Some experts have advised President Tinubu to rejig his Economic Team to bring in persons of proven integrity and competence without bias and vested interest to assist in repositioning the economy.
They have also advised him to review his policies and programmes stifling the economy with suffocating effect on the lives of Nigerians.
To quell the policy-induced hunger in the land, however, the President introduced some intervention programmes like the Compressed National Gas (CNG) policy to bring down the cost of transportation by about 60% thereby providing a viable alternative for petrol and diesel, the direct payment of N75,000 to 15 million households, the release of food from the strategic reserves across the country, the 150-day duty free import window for food commodities (maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas etc.), to moderate domestic food prices, the 740 trucks of rice sent to the 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with each state receiving 20 trucks, and most recently, the increase of national minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000.
Despite these interventions, the Nigerian youths are hard bent on embarking on nationwide protest. Agreed that the reforms came with hardship and have impoverished everyone, however, protest no matter how justifiable cannot address the issue, it will rather worsen it.
For instance, the EndSAR protests staged on October 8, 2020 in Nigeria resulted in significant economic losses. According to the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), over ₦5 trillion (approximately $12.1 billion) was lost during the protests.
This is even as the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated a loss of N700 billion (about $1.7 billion) within the first 12 days alone. Specific regions, like Cross River, experienced damages worth N73 billion (around $176 million) due to vandalism.
Again, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.98% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2024.
This growth rate was higher than the 2.31% recorded in the first quarter of 2023, and lower than the fourth quarter of 2023 growth of 3.46%.
Following this weak economic growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), recently downgraded the nation’s economic growth projection for this year from 3.3 percent to 3.1 percent.
Secondly, the nation’s daily crude oil production upon which the implementation of the 2024 budget was hinged has been on decline, therefore, any protest or destruction of infrastructure will take the country far behind, which will also defeat the aim of the protest, of ensuring a better deal for everyone.
Calls have been made by the government, military and paramilitary, religious leaders and well-meaning Nigerians for the protest to be shelved because of a sinister plan by some elements to infiltrate the protest and use it to cause chaos and extreme violence in the land.
In a meeting with the Charismatic Bishop Conference recently in Abuja, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said, “the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu believes in the freedom of everyone within the confines of the law to do what he thinks is right for him.
“Therefore, the President is not an opponent of protest of any kind but the President is an opponent of violence and anything that will negatively hamper the wellbeing of Nigerians. He believes and he has always been saying that within the tenets of democracy, you have every right to do whatever you want to do provided that right does not infringe on another person’s right.
“Why everybody is very cautious and very weary of this national protest is because we have seen what has happened around the world. We know that it’s almost impossible to hold this protest and then have peace at the end of the day. We cannot do that because some people are waiting to take the laws into their own hands,” he said.
Idris said, the President was fully aware of the genuine concerns and complaints expressed by Nigerians across the nation and he is actively working to implement effective policies aimed at alleviating the challenges faced by the citizenry and bringing relief to all Nigerians.
According to him, the President is fashioning out a policy of paying stipends to all young university and polytechnic unemployed graduates in the country pending their formal employment in any sector of the economy.
“But beyond that, there is also another new policy that the President has formulated, which will begin to be seen very soon and that is that all young men and women who have finished universities and polytechnics and have certificates and have done their mandatory NYSC and have not been able to get jobs, will have something from the government to keep them afloat until the time they get jobs,” he said.
Even if the motive behind the planned protest is right, it is good to dispassionately look at the progress being made by the government, and the possible destructive effect on the nation’s economy, and call it off.
Sunday Etuka is The Editor/Publisher of TheFact Daily/ Magazine.
