Hunger Protests Not for Regime Change

For the umpteenth time, can somebody tell the federal government and its agents that the claim that the sponsors of the recent #EndBadGovernance protests nationwide had the intention of toppling the government of President Bola Tinubu is fallacious? 

The organisers of the protests had officially engaged security agencies and also listed their demands, but regime change was not part of their demands.

But the agents of the federal government have continued to insist that the protest was organised to topple the present administration undemocratically.

Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Delete Alake, expressed similar sentiments when he spoke after the recent Council of State meeting held in Abuja last week.

 Alake said the sponsors of the protesters were planning to truncate the nation’s thriving democracy “but thankfully, Nigerians resisted the move.”

“I call it a movement to effect a change of regime by force, which was also resisted…Any change of government has to be through the ballots and not through the barrel of the gun or insurrection or any other unconstitutional means; only through the ballot box can any government be changed.”

When government officials continue with this misrepresentation of verifiable facts, it means the federal government did not learn anything from the protests.

The government at all levels really needs to answer some basic questions: Are Nigerians not hungry? Is inflation not over 40 per cent? Are the roads good and safe for people to travel? Is the country generally safe? Are people not being killed on a daily basis? Can farmers access their farms?

Though it was unfortunate that hoodlums hijacked the protests to kill, loot and destroy public properties, violent protests are not peculiar to Nigeria.

This is why the claim by the government that the sponsors of the protesters were planning to truncate the nation’s thriving democracy is disingenuous and uncharitable.

During the #EndSARS protest in 2020, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had also described the protest as an attempt to effect regime change, instead of addressing people’s plight.

 It is rhetoric like this that even angers Nigerians to embark on protests in the first place. 

Government officials need to be sensitive to the yearnings of the masses.

 If eminent and detribalised people like the renowned lawyer, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) could understand that those who complained about hunger were doing so sincerely, and urging the government should listen to them, why not Mr. Dele Alake.