Ogun State Governor, Mr Dapo Abiodun, has criticised Nigerians for protesting against the prevailing high cost of living crisis and President Bola Tinubu’s economic performance, describing them as “sore losers.”
He said this on Channel TV during a Thursday night programme, stating that the #EndBadGovernance protest was fuelled by politicians defeated by President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election.
“The problem we have today is that Nigerians are sore losers. If you want a regime change, wait for 2027. Don’t begin to sponsor faceless and leaderless protests under the guise that you are dissatisfied. Yes, the odd reality is not peculiar to Nigeria alone.”
He said Mr Tinubu “majorly won that election,” noting that those who wanted him to be president were more than those that didn’t want him to be president.
But Mr Abiodun, like several Nigerian politicians, have shown that he does not understand Nigeria’s basic problems, said Damaramola Oyedeji, a Lagos-based lawyer, noting that the comments were “simply insensitive.”
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Mr Tinubu won a controversial 2023 presidential election with 37 percent of the votes. The second- and third-highest finishers, Mr Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi, got 29 percent and 25 percent of the votes respectively.
Mr Tinubu’s votes were less than half of the 25.286 million votes cast in March 2023.
Why the protest?
Nigerian young people are currently protesting against economic hardship. Headline inflation quickened to 34.2 percent in June 2024 from 22.79 percent in June 2023 one month after Mr Tinubu became president, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
Food inflation has exceeded 40 percent, with prices of rice, yam, beans, bread and other staples rising by more than 100 percent in one year.
Naira has weakened by over 70 percent since Mr Tinubu came to power, from less N769/$ in early June 2023 to over N1600/$ today.
Salaries have been stagnant and several young Nigerians have no job, with insecurity rising across the nation.
“It shows Mr Dapo Abiodun does not understand the plight of the people he governs,” said Oyedeji. “If he makes these comments, imagine what happens to the people he governs in Ogun State. He will probably think that any opposition to his policies must be coming from opposition politicians.”
In Oyo, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, and other parts of Nigeria, Nigerians are carrying the #EndBadGovernance protest placards aiming to push the Federal Government to lower the rising cost of living in Nigeria.
READ ALSO: Tinubu protested in 2012 but can’t stand planned 2024 demonstration
Mr Tinubu removed petrol subsidies on May 29, 2023 – the day he came to power- but the government still pays subsidies on fuel. The government will spend N5.4 trillion on petrol subsidies in 2024 as against N3.6 trillion expended in 2023.
“At current rates, expenditure on fuel subsidy is projected to reach ₦5.4 trillion by the end of 2024. This compares unfavourably with ₦3.6 trillion in 2023 and ₦2.0 trillion in 2022,” a draft copy of the Accelerated Stabilisation and Advancement Plan (ASAP) presented to President Tinubu by Minister of Finance, Mr Wale Edun in June, said.
Yet a litre of petrol costs over N600. Even with that, Nigeria faces petrol scarcity in Lagos, Abuja and other parts of the country.
The cost of cooking a pot of jollof rice jumped 20 percent to N20,274 in four months to July 2024.
“We are hungry. Today, N5000 cannot cook a pot of soup. Our N10,000 cannot cook a pot of jollof rice. We are demanding good governance, not stipends,” said a protester at Ojota Lagos, Ms Chyna Abike.
