(From: Alliance for All Labour Party Professionals and Stakeholders)
Every Nigerian today is going through one harrowing experience or the other, maybe with the exception of a few, eating directly out of the Villa extravagance. And while most Nigerians will chose to pray for the nation for divine intervention, it is surprising that a few presidential aides, like Bayo Onanuga will continue to gloat around and disinform Nigerians through his evil propaganda, which I believe is a clear disservice to his employers and to every Nigerian.
Onanuga’s tweet weekend, where he made efforts to make light a serious national malaise is clearly infantile, puerile and jejune and by linking Labour Party, its national leader Peter Obi, and some notable party to the proposed ‘EndBadGovernance’ protest while leaving out prominent Nigerians who have also echoed the need for the protest is sycophancy taken to far.
Every Nigerian is indeed concerned with the crisis we got ourselves into under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is a known fact that you don’t give what you do not have, and most Nigerians never expected anything different from what we have today.
Peter Obi and Labour Party are not the reason why food inflation suddenly jumped to more than 40 percent. They are not also the reason why life expectancy has further reduced in the last one year, neither are they the reason while mortality rate has increased.
Peter Obi and Labour Party didn’t cause degradation of the manufacturing sector or the massive exit of manufacturing companies. They didn’t ask the private sector to downgrade, retrench or lay off the workforce.
We proposed an economy that will encourage from consumption to production, but under this government, Nigeria is now begging for bread, even from a wartorn Ukraine because we have failed to do the needful. It is not Labour Party and Peter Obi that are responsible for the loan scrambling, even from nations with grave conditions.
Do we have bad governance in Nigeria? Your guess is as good as mine. And why are the youths thinking of a protest as a way of registering their frustration in the system. The reasons are clear. They witnessed that in one year, the petroleum pump price jumped from below N200 to about N700 per liter. They witnessed naira exchanging for N2000 per dollar from below N400. They witnessed a loaf of bread which hitherto sold for N350 now selling for N2000; they also realized that in campuses, they can’t buy a plate of food at the school canteen for N300 again because a bag of rice is now N80.000 from less than N15.000 just like the cost of other food items have skyrocketed.
To them, they believe that people like Onanuga and a few privileged persons in government are immune from the economic crisis and not abreast with the reality of the time. They were aware that at this critical point in time, that this same government chose to approve N6billion for car parks for the members of the National Assembly to enable them park the imported N165million prado jeep which this government bought for each one of 469 of them. They were also aware that the sum of N15billion was approved to build a house for the Vice-President and N20billion to build the house of the Chief of Staff to the President and billions to furnish the Villa. Of course, they read that Number 12 Downing Street was built over 200 years ago and the new Prime Minister only two weeks ago moved into it without any renovation or change of furniture or even requesting for a new mansion to be built for him.
These youths are not so dumb that this government awarded one contract to construct a coastal road at N15.6 trillion, a contract awarded to satisfy friendship and at a time that what should occupy their thoughts out to be how to salvage the acute hunger in the land. They are also aware that this government has borrowed more than $17billion within a year, using part of it to purchase a N150b presidential jet while also forcing N70.000 as minimum wage down the throat of the Nigerian workers.
It is even amusing for the presidency to call for the arrest of Peter Obi and some Labour Party leaders. The Presidency’s stance is a classic case of “give a dog a bad name to hang it.” By tarnishing Peter Obi’s image and linking him to potential chaos, they aim to discredit his candidacy and undermine LP’s growing popularity. The Presidency’s selective targeting of Obi and LP reveals their true intentions to suppress opposition voices and maintain their grip on power.
It is therefore essential for Nigerians to see through this ruse and recognize the government’s desperation to silence opposition voices. The planned protest is a legitimate expression of citizens’ grievances, and the government should address the underlying issues rather than attempting to suppress dissenting voices.
President Tinubu should be mindful of any ‘Counsel of Ahitophel’ from people like Onanuga who are busy beating the drums of war. There is work to do and he must rise up to the occasion because that is why Nigerians supposedly hired him.
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