There is a saying in Hausa – shure shure bai hana mutuwa, which literally means ‘struggling to survive does not stop one from dying’. This, perhaps, is the reality facing the government of President Bola Tinubu.

With a protest which took place early last month, the government desperately mobilised opposition to it. Every time Nigerians try to engage the government through protests or other modes of contestation, these same groups are always there with the same messages and warnings against so-called violence.

They always uncover plots by opposition, criminal elements, etc. to hijack protests and campaigns against governments. If anything, it would have been news if they said anything contrary. The reality is that, often the response of the security agencies through attempts to forcefully disperse protesters is the source of violence.

In all past experiences, irrespective of these so-called appeals, which threatened organisers of the protests, protests still take place and in varying degrees recorded success.

As someone who is privileged to have organised protests in the country, one can say without any fear of contradiction that Nigerians, across every part of the country, have never been pushed to the wall like they are today. Within one year, virtually everything has crashed, all due to the impatience and arrogance of President Tinubu.

If Tinubu has turned out to be an impatient leader who is in a hurry to implement policies that have impoverished citizens, why should citizens be patient with him?

Here is a President Asiwaju Tinubu who even before settling down to resume work as President of the Federal Republic, declared an end to petroleum subsidy without any plan. At the same time, he proceeded to float the exchange rate of the naira against other international currencies.

For an import dependent nation, why should any leaders be in a hurry to implement such policies without having any plan to boost local production? In the case of withdrawal of subsidy, does it require any counselling to time such policy with ensuring capacity for local refining?

With all the talk of fixing the four refineries in the country and the beginning of production activity by the Dangote refinery, why is the President in a mad rush and unable to align his policy initiatives with these expectations?

And having pushed the nation to a hopeless trajectory, which has worsened living conditions of all Nigerians, what plan has President Tinubu put in place to fix the problem? Even in terms of ameliorating the challenge facing Nigerians, the government has demonstrated lack of capacity to manage initiatives resulting in compounding the allegations of embezzlement surrounding initiatives to ameliorate worsening conditions of citizens.

For more than one year, it’s been one explanation after the other, with hardly any clear blueprint or timeline when the downward slide of the Nigerian economy will end. Every day, the hopelessness of the government gets more exposed.

For those of us who were associated with President Tinubu and campaigned for him to become President, it is a big disappointment.. We campaigned for him with the conviction that he is a strategic politician who is an excellent talent hunter.

The magic of how Lagos State was transformed under his leadership was our reference point. Sadly, more than one year at the helm of affairs as the President of Nigeria, it is a different Asiwaju Tinubu we have who is becoming an excellent hunter for political mercenaries.

He has become more strategic in taking decisions without looking at the problem, which could be why he promised Nigerian workers a living wage, but his negotiation skills could only retain the old starvation minimum wage.

Terribly, President Tinubu has turned out to be a politician who is resistant to accountability. If anyone doubts this, just check the state of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a political party. When last did any of the organs meet?

Being a brash politician, for the first time in the political history of Nigeria, we have a government that marginalises the people of NorthCentral.

And with the way APC has been completely demobilised under his leadership, democracy is reduced to a mockery in Nigeria. So far, Tinubu is turning out to be the

But the crisis of insecurity continues to ravage the nation. Crisis of education with more than 10 million out of school children in the North is never given any attention. Nigerian public hospitals have since degenerated from being consulting clinics to mortuaries

most inaccessible President in Nigeria’s political history. Even Gen. Sani Abacha wasn’t as inaccessible. Beyond the APC, all the leading opposition parties, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples’ Party (NNPC) have been manipulated into leadership crisis.

As it is, with the way things are happening, even the remote hope of using elections to register citizens’ opposition against the disposition of President Tinubu is fading away.

In addition, having reduced the National Assembly to a rubber stamp and made it incapable of checking the excesses of the executive, President Tinubu has crushed all available democratic structures capable of enabling Nigerians to influence decisions of his government.

And in the face of all these, reckless illogical decisions such as expending more than N15 trillion, more than half the annual budget of Nigeria is being expended on the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar coastal road.

Billions have been expended to acquire luxury vehicles for political leaders, and the construction of the Vice-Presidential Lodge. But the crisis of insecurity continues to ravage the nation. Crisis of education with more than 10 million out of school children in the North is never given any attention.

Nigerian public hospitals have since degenerated from being consulting clinics to mortuaries. Yet, President Tinubu and people around him want Nigerians to still regard him as a progressive politician.

Given all these, if the President is a progressive politician, then former President Donald Trump of the United States of America is a revolutionary. Any attempt to claim that President Tinubu is an Awoist will make Chief Obafemi Awolowo to turn in his grave.

It must be recognised that attempts to suppress protest by even military governments have never succeeded. Often, after all the attempts to suppress protests, previous governments end up granting concessions, much more than what they would have ordinarily given.

While acknowledging that one is not in any way related with the organisers of the August 1 protest, they must be commended for summoning the courage to mobilise Nigerians and confront the administration of President Tinubu to change the way it is managing affairs of the country.

The government must recognise that within one year, it has created more problems for Nigerians so much so that the hunger in the land has threatened virtually all citizens.

If President Tinubu wants to recover whatever is left of his democratic credentials, he should listen to the cries of Nigerians and respond by way of reviewing his policy decisions, especially withdrawal of subsidy and floating the naira exchange rate.

Certainly, these two policies can be managed better. The speed with which they were implemented is the problem. Instead of anyone asking Nigerians to be patient, it is President Tinubu that must be asked to be patient and handle leadership responsibility with compassion.

Even if President Tinubu is unable to recover his progressive credentials, we need him to be a democrat who can at least be accessible and accountable to democratic structures as provided in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended.

To that extent, all patriotic Nigerians must register disapproval about the politicisation of the military high command by the attempt to draw them into the plot to suppress the protest.

By extension, the military high command must be told in unmistaken terms that protests are legitimate in a democracy. No one should attempt to criminalise legitimate initiatives of Nigerians to engage in any contestation with elected governments in Nigeria.

For those who express the suspicion of political motives about the protest, they must be told very clearly, that protests by nature are political. The decisions that cre – ated the challenges, which makes the protest necessary, are political.

The election of President Tinubu is politically coming with so many political promises as contained in his Renewed Hope campaign document. If instead of producing Renewed Hope, his government is producing misery and hopelessness, citizens have every right to take up the political responsibility of contesting against his administration.

In fact, faced with the reality confronting Nigerians, all genuine democrats must join the protest. Certainly, the future of Nigerian democracy is bright, and a new democratic Nigeria is possible!

Lukman writes from Kaduna

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