Nigeria may be in the throes of its worst economic crisis ever, but increasingly loud calls for the president to resign are wildly off the mark in a country where hypocrisy and hysteria are common public attributes.
On 18 February 2023,Nigerians elected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a four-year term. The election which was hotly contested was even more disputed in courts of law. Resulting litigation from the election went all the way to the Supreme Court before a judgment of 26 October 2023 put paid to every litigation as far as the election was concerned. But it has not been quiet since then. If anything, the hush that fell across the country following the Judgment was the calm before the storm.
It is doubtful that on the back of the Supreme Court judgment that confirmed his victory, President Tinubu expected that he would be allowed to settle down and face the task at hand. If he thought that that would be the case, he was sorely mistaken. But it is doubtful that that was his mentality.
Even before Tinubu was sworn in on May 29, 2023, Nigeria’s problems were well documented. Rising poverty and mounting insecurity were familiar challenges under Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessors. These challenges, as formidable as they were under his predecessor were compounded by an abysmal failure of governance for eight long years.
Even as Tinubu campaigned, promising stricken and long-suffering Nigerians a stint in the sun and a departure from the past, it was clear that he would struggle in a country where citizens struggle to believe public officers more than they struggle to survive.
Nigerians are known for their patience and quiet fortitude which can sometimes pass for naivety and docility. Even after it had become glaring that the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari was as directionless as it was clueless, some Nigerians still kept hope alive that it would find its bearing, at least for the sake of the most vulnerable Nigerians. That never happened. If anything, those incipient hopes were cruelly shattered.
Eight months into his presidency, President Tinubu has offered Nigerians a presidency of shocks with very little shock therapy. It took him no time to peel away every layer of protection offered Nigerians by the contentious fuel subsidy regime, and it has been downhill ever since. The rising cost of living has melded rather maliciously with surging insecurity to leave many Nigerians struggling to survive.
Protests against the government have rocked state capitals around the country. Kano and Minna have been notable examples. However, it is the protests that erupted in Ibadan that has so far raised the most eyebrows.
On February 19, 2024, just about the year since the election that brought Tinubu to power, protests swept through Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, crying against the rising cost of living. During the protests, some quite unprintable words were hurled at the president right there in the heart of the southwest Nigeria where he hails from. That was quite significant given the often toxic nature of Nigeria’s ethno-religious politics.
In the face of the murmurs of discontent sweeping the country, many, including some state governors from opposition political parties, have called on the President to resign his position. Many Nigerians have minced no words in telling the president that if the heat has become too much for him, he should leave the kitchen. However, the president cannot leave. Not yet.
First, it is not in the nature of politicians to resign from their office. In Nigeria, politicians usually dig in until death digs them out. This is not surprising. Given the cut-throat nature of politics in Nigeria, which is critically underlined by the fact that many politicians will do anything to get into public office in Nigeria, it is not expected that they will leave easily.
Second, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected for a four-year term, which is the least he can do before seeking a re-election. It is doubtful that he will cut that short anytime soon. Should he? If Nigerians allowed the previous president to enjoy eight uninterrupted years of ineptitude and inertia, then what is sauce for the goose should surely be sauce for the gander.
Third, why should President Tinubu resign? And why are people even protesting in every part of the country except, and rather notably, in the Southeast? Nigeria is a democracy that remains one, no matter its many flaws. By the 1 March 2023 announcement of the Independent National Electoral Commission, which by law is empowered to conduct elections and declare as elected candidates for Nigeria’s public office, President Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes, the highest among the contenders to emerge winner of the elections. It means that majority of the Nigerians who voted in the election wanted Tinubu to be their president.
Nigerians voted for him, they wanted him. They saw all the contenders and preferred Tinubu. They were not short of options. To be clear, the cast of the 18 February 2023 election was the most star-studded. The presence of the immensely popular Mr. Peter Obi on the ballot meant that for the first time in many years, Nigerians had the rare opportunity to reject the traditional powers that had left them in no man’s land.
Yet, Nigerians bypassed him for a man dressed in red flags.
The president cannot resign. It would be grossly unfair to chalk Nigeria’s many problems down to a man who has been in office for only eight months.
While things get worse before they get better just as the president has promised, it would be wise for Nigerians to dig in, and maybe fast and pray as the good people of Borno State are doing.
However, to ask someone, they elected just eight months ago to resign is to appear at once ungrateful and insufferable.
KeneObiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
