By Joachim Olumba
There’s an ominous storm gathering over the nation’s socioeconomic and political firmament. Massive discontent is so pervasive with tremendous potential to fuel imminent anarchy. Every day over the past couple of weeks, more and more Nigerians are growing restive, and an implosion is steadily becoming more perceivable.
People, in their unimaginable and uncountable numbers are gnashing their teeth under the excruciating weight of pervasive economic hardships. Suffering and pains of the magnitude never experienced by Nigerians, with the exception of Igbo people, are ravaging and decimating our country men and women.
There’s mass hunger and starvation across the land. Disease and squalor have compounded the terrible plight of the common man in today’s Nigeria. Inflationary trend of a dimension unprecedented in our history has become the albatross of majority of hungry, starving and disease-afflicted Nigerians. People’s purchasing power can hardly be anything to write home about. Basic salary has completely been reduced to a level of nothingness, as it cannot bear the heavy weight of the competing needs of every worker. Prices of food items, commodities and drugs have reached unaffordable heights due to astronomical inflationary levels. People can no longer afford to feed themselves and their families. Neither are they able to seek decent medical attention for their loved sick ones.
In fact, the national monthly minimum wage of thirty thousand naira can barely amount to a paltry twenty dollars. There’s ever the possibility of daily crash in the value of the local currency, which leaves the Nigerian worker and common man in dire straits of absolute penury and hardship. The worker’s monthly take home salary cannot feed him let alone cover rent and transportation costs. That’s for an average worker who has no wife and child. Artisans and daily income earners are the worst off. Small-scale traders, business operators and farmers have no story to tell that is different from working class Nigerians.
Indeed, the battered state of the economy has totally eliminated the presence of the middle class in our society. It’s either a Nigerian is poor or rich, the latter being populated largely by the unproductive political class thriving on excessive government patronage and, or on corruption.
All of these extremely harsh socioeconomic realities have been brought upon the people of this country by the major twin policy of removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the Naira. The former specifically resulted in astronomical inflationary increases while the latter brought about an unprecedented crash in the value of the Naira, also driving the rate of inflation to the sky. Both policies have inflicted on the people hardships, pains and frustrations of unimaginable, unspeakable and unprintable proportions.
Violent crimes and criminality have been on the upsurge. There’s been an unprecedented escalation of kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery, murder, banditry and insurgency. Nigerians have never had it so terrible and tragic, forcing many to the brink of losing their sanity while those with the wherewithal have resorted to leaving the country in their staggering large numbers. In recent times, more Nigerians have reportedly suffered mental health issues while many had opted for the cruel option of terminating their own lives. Suicide cases have been on the rise now more than ever before due to an increasing spate of depression. It’s an indisputable fact that never in the nation’s historical trajectory have Nigerians been so forced to the walls.
Expectedly, there’s palpable mounting tension in the land; tension that’s pervasive and speaks eloquently of impending disaster. This started gradually with scathing criticisms of the government of Bola Tinubu. The condemnation of the massive suffering and hardship across the country occasioned by harsh government policies later became intense and extensive. Opposition political leaders began to speak out, castigating the federal government for the poor management of the economy that imposed crushing pains on Nigerians. Some notable traditional rulers, Church leaders and a few privileged Nigerians have joined in cautioning the government on the great need to reverse the horrible economic hardships confronting the citizens in order to avert an impending implosion. Gradually and steadily, protests are erupting in different parts of the country. Protests against the government over the crushing economic difficulties have been reported in some core northern and south western cities. Eminent personalities of northern extraction, including the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar and the former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (retd) amongst others had warned of the severe implications of the widespread hunger, starvation and anger in the north. Many south westerners, or the Yoruba, have vociferously and stoutly slammed the government of the day over the increasing hardships which their unfavourable economic policies have subjected Nigerians to.
Ironically, the entire south east have maintained a studied silence over the unbearable suffering across the country and the consequent growing restiveness in other geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Not much chastisement to the government has emanated from the south south region, apart from Asari Dokubo whose occasional outbursts are widely believed to be driven by self-serving motives.
From the recent widely reported reaction of one of the northern elite, Prof Usman Yusuf, former Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the silence of the south east appears to be unsettling to not a few. He seems not to know why south easterners are “unusually quiet” in the prevailing conditions and circumstances. This might have informed his advice to the federal government to seek an understanding of what must have been responsible for the piercing apathy of Ndi Igbo over the widespread discontentment and ongoing protests fuelled by pervasive hunger, starvation and suffering.
I am certain that their minds will be directing many of them to the wrong direction. The country is always quick to misrepresent Ndi Igbo. We are quite familiar with this unhealthy trend which has for the most part dictated collective perception and treatment of our people.
For this reason, I have decided to offer answers to the Igbo silence on the tragically poor state of the nation which is pregnant with ominous signs. The honest answers are very simple. Not far-fetched whatsoever. The realities of the extremely harsh and horrible economic situation enveloping the country affect all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, religion or party affiliation. We have all been levelled on the same field by the government and its characteristic very awkward governance skills and strategies. No group is spared in Nigeria by the acutely disastrous leadership standards visited on the country by the All Progressives Congress (APC), from the grossly incompetent Muhammed Buhari regime to the present clueless, incapacitated and catastrophic Bola Tinubu government. Indeed, the people of the south east have never had it so awfully bad, outside the civil war experience between 1967 and 1970, and the immediate era accompanying the end of the war. It’s been another hellish situation and experience for the vast majority of people in the south east. Reports emanating from our kith and kin residing in other parts of the country are not different from the extremely difficult situations back home. All Nigerians have been equally exposed to unprecedented levels of hardship by this mindless administration.
The pertinent question therefore is: why the deafening silence across the length and breadth of the south east. As hinted earlier, the answer is pretty simple. Unlike the rest of the people of this country who are extensively believed to be in hilarious pursuit of the unwholesome agenda of suffocating us in the polity, we saw this coming, hence, it’s not in anyway shocking to the least of us. We did not only have a premonition or foreknowledge of this, we were patriotically determined to help the entire nation avert a looming danger. We saw in all the intrigues a conspiracy of the ruling classes of the core north and south west, to perpetuate primordial consideration, and above all, the firm grip of the criminal leadership establishment on the resources of the country for the ultimate benefit of a few. We had to foster a virile partnership with ordinary Nigerians, especially the youth, who are most desirous of facilitating a viable transition from the conventional retrogressive political leaders holding the nation hostage to a new order of real and genuine progressivism devoid of unbridled corruption and selfishness. We presented a Peter Obi for the all-important office of President against the candidates for the other two major political parties, who are linked with notorious credentials and past. Obi had (and still have) age, physical strength and mental presence all on his side. Still before our very eyes the elections with all the shenanigans associated with it produced the worst of the candidates by every standard as the stage-managed victor. At least, millions of people still hold this view, rightly or wrongly.
From that very point, the vast majority of the people of the south east resolved to distance themselves from the government and whatever becomes of it. Many of us have never been in doubt as to the direction the government would be headed. We were certain that a government that would be worst than its predecessor had mounted the saddle. We expected all that is happening from the inception of this administration. So, we are the least surprised with the uncanny developments in the country’s socioeconomic sphere since May 29, 2023. Indeed, no surprises as to the unparalleled hardships, sufferings, pains, corruption and so on. Therefore, our shock absorbers had been well-propelled to tolerate the excruciating and crushing economic difficulties threatening to cripple the entire country. This is primarily why we have not joined the fray yet, and are not considering joining soon.
That we felt the principles of equity, fairness and justice favoured us to be allowed to present the President of the country and we offered the best candidate, but the rest of the country due to the usual idiosyncrasies opted for a very old man with controversial records have made us to accept our real fate in Nigeria. This is not an acceptance of defeat. We need time to work out survival strategies in this country. Therefore, we do not need any distractions. We need to be “unusually quiet” now more than ever before, as no one raised a voice in favour or defence of Ndi Igbo when the Lagos State government unleashed its destructive machinery on the property and investments of our people after the election. Our crime was mustering the audacity to challenge and defeat their presidential candidate notwithstanding all their manipulative machinations and election violence directed against Ndi Igbo in Lagos. If we join the protests now, the storyline will suddenly and shockingly change. It’ll no longer be a nationwide protest against the government for the hunger, starvation and suffering they have brought upon the people. They will surely attempt to turn it to an Igbo verses Yoruba imbroglio.
Buhari did something akin to this during the EndSARS protests. He and his handlers curiously and mischievously changed the narrative to assume a plot for his removal from office. His people bought into the lie and they refused to participate in the protests. No one queried them for non-participation. Therefore, Ndi Igbo should be respected and left with their decisions and reactions to the ongoing protests.
Again, we, south easterners can accept to be labelled with any adjective other than fools. We see the fervent and strident criticisms and attacks of the north on the government of Tinubu as hypocritical and provocative. These same people feigned to be blind, deaf, dumb and insensitive throughout the eight years of Buhari’s anomalous and scandalous misrule and maladministration which laid the solid foundation for the present unequalled destruction of the nation’s economy. Buhari succeeded in returning the nation back to square one; turning us once again into a beggar and debtor nation with humongous foreign and local debts hanging on our necks and those of our unborn generations. Unemployment figures, inflation, insecurity all rose to the zenith under Buhari. Yet, core northerners kept mute throughout his inglorious rule. One wonders why they are speaking out now that Tinubu is barely nine months in the saddle. We only heard northern leaders speaking to Buhari on the parlous state of the country under his watch when insecurity was about literally consuming everyone in the north.
Their virulent chastisement of Tinubu today smacks of ulterior motive. We know that they genuinely feel the pains of bad governance which is the hallmark of Tinubu’s young regime. However, we regard their response as double-standard. It’s without any iota of doubt abnormal. Our critical thinking is seeking to understand why they didn’t find it worthy and deserving to call out their own man, Buhari, when he was destroying every fabric of good governance available in the country then? We need answer to this crucial question.
Ndi Igbo are hardly pretentious people. We speak out no matter who is involved. We do not spare anyone who fails to meet our reasonable expectations. We never stay away from telling ourselves and others the truth, no matter how it hurts. This is one clear attribute that is missing from most of our fellow Nigerian compatriots. We appreciate the fact that many Yoruba people are presently in the vanguard of condemnation of the Tinubu government. Their tendency to condemn evil sprouts only when it affects them. Many of them threw caution to the wind by preferring an old tribesman with scandalous integrity over any other candidate during the presidential election. To a great number of them, a rogue tribesman is better to be President over a good non-tribesman. That’s what has brought us to our present quagmire in which case we’re confronted with the worst form of hardship in our collective history.
The massive rejection of primordial sentiments and preference for quality, standard and truth is what distinguishes Ndi Igbo from the rest. For this reason, Ndi Igbo have been wrongly accused of hating each other and of being disunited. This presumption is totally erroneous. The last election proved that. We supported Peter Obi en masse simply because we saw him as the best of the frontline candidates. We’re certain that with him Nigeria will verily commence the greatly needed journey to national socioeconomic and ethical rebirth. He was unequivocal and unpretentious about his paramount electoral promise of taking the country from being a consuming entity to a producing economy. His adversaries and those who never desired any changes to the status quo never wanted to hear that. Today, everyone of them are postulating and clamouring for the Obi programme, insisting that the only answer to the chronic and strangulating foreign exchange (forex) crisis in the country lies in building a production-based economy. Is it not ironic that we abandoned the one who made this his cardinal campaign promise and are now suggesting it to the government that distanced itself from making a commitment to any distinctive and dynamic economic policy?
In essence, our people do not support presidential candidates based on tribe, but on competence. We supported Obasanjo in 1999 and 2003, even when the main opposition party, the All Progressive Party (APP) fielded our sons as vice presidential candidates. We also repeated the same choice by voting massively for Goodluck Jonathan in 2011 and 2015. It’s against this background that we expected that no well-meaning Nigerian will jettison the choice of Peter Obi for either Bola Tinubu or Atiku Abubakar. Unfortunately, many did. The core north thought that by conspiring with the south west, they are undermining and undoing the south east. Today, the conspiracy has backfired. And the conspirators are crying wolf. Our position therefore is that those who exercised this ill-choice should bear the brunt. Moreover, we are questioning the rationale behind keeping mute when Buhari took Nigeria’s economy on a nosedive while now literally calling for Tinubu’s head in the face of his numerous failures within a short stay in office.
Ndi Igbo cannot seriously identify with the people who refused to be open-hearted and patriotic enough to criticize their own person who did nearly everything wrong while occupying the top office of President for eight lengthy years of two terms and are now eager to call out a failing Yoruba man under nine months. We accept intoto that things have never been this bad. Obviously, we would have teamed up with the rest of the country to demand for and possibly work towards the early termination of the life of this administration using legitimate avenues. But we’ll find it difficult and perhaps, impossible, to join hands with people who are always more concerned with their tribal and regional interest to the detriment of national socioeconomic wellbeing. The perceptive undercurrent to compound the misfortunes of this government will hardly receive the support and participation of south easterners. This can only happen if the genuine forces of positive change from all parts of the country will agree to work together for a brighter and greater future of this country. We have all seen how fragile the country and its economy are. In just a few months, we have needlessly and helplessly watched the country on a free and irretrievable slide to the abyss of economic doom.
Until we are ready to ditch paying lip service to the “unity-in-diversity” cliche and put same to perceivable and believable practicality, we’ll continue to experience and suffer the endless journey to no meaningful direction.
Meanwhile, Ndi Igbo do not mean any harm. All we’re asking for is to let us be “unusually quiet.” When everyone wants Nigeria to work, prosper and progress, then we should be called upon for serious discussion and negotiation. For now, we are content with quietly suffering the excruciating pains which their decisions and actions have brought to us.
