President Bola Ahmed Tinubu spoke to Nigerian citizens twice a week after ignoring them for one year. The addresses on 4 and 7 August 2024 underline the pressure from the EndBadGovernance protests that have roiled the country since 1 August. The protests shook governments at all levels and witnessed avoidable ugliness in violence perpetrated by protesters and the government.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
Unfortunately, both speeches failed a significant and accepted test in management. They were not SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, or timebound. They consisted of glittering generalities and lacked empathy in the case of the first address.
First, however, we commend the president and his handlers for being responsive in delivering a second address after the backlash from the first. Presidential foe and friend alike agreed that the 4 August address did not meet the mark. It was lacking, above all, in the desired empathy.
Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka accused the government of serving citizens with bullets instead of bread. He stated, “Live bullets as a state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest. Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S., not peculiar to the Nigerian nation. They belong in a class of their own, never mind the collateral claims emblazoned on posters. They serve as summons to governance that a breaking point has been reached and, thus, a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation.
“The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, and for which notice was served, constitutes a retrogression that takes the nation even further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests. It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that induced the late-stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government.
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Soyinka continued, “The nation’s security agencies cannot pretend unawareness of alternative models for emulation, civilised advances in security intervention. Need we recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of what is generally known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curriculum.
“In all of the coverage that I watched, I did not catch one single instance of a gun levelled at protesters, much less fired at them even during direct physical confrontations. The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.”
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Tinubu said on Sunday, “We are working hard for you, and the results will soon be visible and concrete for everyone to see, feel, and enjoy. I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens.”
Read also: President Tinubu’s speech emphasises the need for timely, proper policy implementation: The EndBadGovernance Protest
There was nothing specific. Instead, the speech rolled out government propaganda with a long list of projects, programmes, and sums involved. It failed to address the specific concerns behind the protests, such as corruption, bloated bureaucracy, and indifference to citizens’ groans from the effects of the two pillars of the Tinubu reforms. Tinubu doubled down on the removal of subsidy without offering an alternative.
The second speech was emollient but offered only a few specifics. The president acknowledged the pains of citizens but did not address the government’s wastefulness and expensive taste.
Mr President evinced rare humility. “All our good and helpful plans are in the works. More importantly, I know they would work. Sadly, there was an avoidable lag between subsidy removal and these plans coming fully online.”
President Tinubu added, “I plead with you, please, have faith in our ability to deliver and our concern for your well-being. We will get out of this turbulence, and due to the measures we have taken, Nigeria will be better equipped and able to take advantage of the future that awaits her. For example, we shall fulfil our promise to make education more affordable to all and provide loans to higher education students who may need them. No Nigerian students will have to abandon the higher education system because of a lack of money. Our commitment is to promote the greatest good for the greatest number of our people. On principle, we shall never falter, I assure you, my fellow countrymen and women, that we are exiting the darkness to enter a new and glorious dawn. Now, I must get back to work to make this vision come true.”
What are these “measures we have taken,” and when will they yield results? The lack of clarity may suggest that even the federal government is lost in the woods regarding what to do. This thought frightens every citizen. We suggest that the federal government should and could do better and speak more deliberately. The matter is dire.
