Nigeria Society & Leadership Series: 10
Theme: 12-Point Recommendation to Stop the Planned #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Protest
By Amin Buba Dibal
Grievances are rife across Nigeria and there is a call for nationwide protest by civil society groups with a slated date of August 1st – 10th 2024. The planned protest has been titled #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria. At the root of the call for protest is widespread hunger, high inflation induced by the removal of fuel subsidy, insecurity, corruption, and waste in governance.
The problems are not to be blamed on the President Tinubu administration only as they are challenges associated with poor leadership and weak leadership patriotism in our nation over decades at varying degrees that have culminated in the current situation. But given the country is currently led by Tinubu, it behooves him to be the one to provide direction to managing the current crisis and inspire hope.
The government’s responses thus far have been engaging leaders of communities, civil society groups, religious and socio-cultural organizations, and opinion leaders, distributing grossly inadequate and unsustainable palliative and discouraging protests by government officials. They are all good efforts, however, the underlying root causes that have given rise to the dire living crisis in our country today are what need to be addressed through concrete, transparent, and participatory plans of action.
To be fair, one year of an administration may be inadequate for evaluation, however, there are opinions that the demonstrated policy directions, symbolic body language of the government, and conduct of public officials left little to be desired and assure Nigerians that the country is headed in the right direction but the same route the nation has been on for years that has brought us to the current state of affairs.
It is against this background that as a Nigerian I wish to make the recommendations below to the President to help douse the tension of widespread call for nationwide protest:
1. A date and time be announced before 1st August by relevant government officials to Nigerians that the President will address the nation.
2. In the address, announce to Nigerians a timeframe for the government and citizens to agree a national framework to combat corruption in society and all sectors of government.
3. Announce a plan and timeline to meter all Nigerian oil rigs through a citizen’s participatory process.
4. Through a local and international partnership of stakeholders in the oil and gas sector, announce a timeline to announce the actual number of litres of crude exploited daily and actual petrol consumed daily in the country.
5. Announce a timeline to end oil theft which only happens in Nigeria the world over, thus boosting revenue for the government.
6. Announce a timeline for the full functioning of our four refineries. In the interim, make pronouncement of guarantee of adequate crude oil supply to all functioning refineries in Nigeria to supply the Nigerian market which will be far cheaper than imported and thus reduce the high inflation across the economy induced by largely the high cost of petrol. This will remove the need for subsidy.
7. Announce a timebound plan to secure the rural areas for safe agriculture across Nigeria.
8. Announce a robust and time-bound transparent fertilization subsidy program to ensure food security.
9. Announce a timeline for the government to cut reckless spending at all levels based on specific issues.
10. Announce a timeline to ensure the comprehensive implementation of the LGA autonomy process.
11. Announce a timeline to implement the conditions for subsidy removal presented to the government in 2012 when a protest was led against the removal of subsidy.
12. Commit to giving Nigerians updates on the implementation process of the above recommendations every quarter through a national broadcast.
Long live our democracy, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
