Mr President, You Owe Us Apologies

By Comfort Obi

 

President Bola Tinubu owes Nigerians a couple of  apologies. But one in particular is urgent because it would help clean our dirt a little before the world. It is an apology he should have offered since. I thought he be reminded because it is, almost, late.

His subordinates are not allowing us to forget. So, the more he delays, the more they worsen the situation by either double-speaking or adding more fuel to the fire they lit. They keep reminding us of things we have been struggling to forget.

So, while offering the apology, Mr President needs to, also,  publicly chide some of  his subordinates.  represent him publicly. He needs to take a second look at them. He needs to double-check what they tell him. Things are far from what they tell Mr President.

In reality, a number of them don’t give a hoot about Mr President as long as they praise him in order to keep their jobs.

They criticise him behind closed doors. They don’t mean well for him. Otherwise, how did they draw the President into the recent mess with minors? How could they have given the world the impression that the President does not know some of the  happenings around him? How could they have locked up minors, for over three months, and starved them to the point where they were fainting in Court?

In the name of serving him, they present Tinubu in the worst of colors. In their bid to get noticed, they become ridiculous sycophants; what they say does damage personally to him and his Government.

As the President, the ball stops on his desk. Even in my little place, I cannot begin to count how many times I have had to own up to, and apologise for a script I never saw.

Mrs Chris Anyanwu,  accomplished Journalist, was jailed by the repressive General Sani Abacha regime over a publication by her Magazine because the ball stopped on her table. She planned no coup, and was privy to none. The reporter who wrote the “offensive” cover story disappeared into “thin air” – as far as I know, he has made no contact with any staff member (then) till date.

So, whatever any of President Tinubu’s subordinates says or does is attributable to him. He takes responsibility.

Wearing the three caps of President, Presidency, Federal Government, he has shocked a lot of people by some happenings under his watch. “I don’t believe this is the same man who stood for democracy under Abacha”, said a diplomat at an informal chat recently.

So, there I was, this other night awake, mostly, as the seconds, minutes and hours ticked by. Face, up. Eyes, wide open. Starring at nothing. Just starring. My  pillows partly wet, wet from sweat because there was no power supply. There had not been for three days. As usual, for more times than I remember, the national grid had packed up.

Inside me, I was hot. A kind of “heat wave” for want of a better way to put it. And no, it was not menopause setting in. That’s gone. It’s a nightly medication I am condemned to for the next five years which job is to make me uncomfortable once there is no power supply, and so, no air-conditioner, no fan. And here’s the sad part this very night.

I couldn’t ask that the power generating set be put on. Poor thing. It had ran for about eight hours, non-stop. So, I asked for it to be put off. “Give it a break, let it rest”, I ordered.

But, of course, you understand. My order was not because I was in sympathy with the gen-set. No, I was in sympathy with my purse. One cannot be spending N100,000 everyday on diesel. Not that the public power supply is cheaper than diesel. With this wicked “Band A”, atimes, I pray that NEPA,(we still call it NEPA, and shout ‘up NEPA’ when power is restored) goes to hell with its power supply. In my house, and I am not exaggerating, it is N60,000 every two days! It’s killing me.

I have toyed with the idea of removing all the electric bulbs in the house except those in the kitchen and the rest rooms. But how does one maneuver the staircase? A friend of mine did that and missed a step on her staircase. She had a big fall and was lucky her skull did not crack. But she is still nursing a bad leg. How does one read at night? I have banned the use of microwave. And, in frustration, one day, I unplugged the fridges and freezers. The washing machine is a taboo now. Nothing is wrong with our hands I tell my now almost scared household. And, I am still eyeing the iron and ironing board. That’s how bad things are.

So, this day when I had little or no sleep, my mind roamed. I thought about the Nigeria that was, and the Nigeria that is. I sighed, and in frustration, I exclaimed, “Mr President, you owe us a couple of apologies”.

First on my list is the fuel subsidy which he removed(?) within minutes of becoming the President. Nobody prepared us for the immediate consequences. The result is the abominable cost of fuel and everything. And, I’m like, how did the President forget so soon? Are we just a pawn in the hands of politicians and our leaders?

Is this not the same Tinubu who was vehemently opposed to any increase in fuel price during the Goodluck Jonathan Government?

As the leader and strongest voice

 of the opposition then, Tinubu, a good organizer,  put together a huge protest which grounded Lagos for days.  That protest had everything going for it. High profile attendance. Good food, beverages. Revolutionary music/songs in full supply. Speeches which wrenched the heart and could make the cripple walk – all aimed at showcasing how wicked Jonathan was for adding a few kobo to the cost of fuel; for daring to suggest that fuel subsidy be “touched” a little.

Jonathan was accused of snatching babies away from their mothers’ breasts which they were sucking. He was accused of forcefully removed feeding bottles from the mouths of babies.

A coffin was carried with Jonathan’s name on it. Fuel subsidy was dismissed as a scam. There was nothing like fuel subsidy.

Tinubu crowned all those with a well-written, well publicized opinion piece where he roundly berated Jonathan. But look at where we are today.

Subsidy is gone. The cost of fuel is better not remembered to avoid a stroke. We are just barely surviving. The question is: what changed? How did Mr President plunge headlong into what he roundly condemned under Jonathan? Clearly, he knew Jonathan was right and he, Tinubu, was wrong, and was just playing politics with the future of Nigerians; that he knew the truth but decided to feed Nigerians with a dose of political falsehood; that perhaps, if he had not condemned it then, our fate today could have been different. Mr President has not apologized to Nigerians for misinforming and misleading us then. He has not told us what changed.

For the records, I am not one of those who hold President Tinubu responsible for the hell we are going through today. Not even the removal of the fuel subsidy. I actually believe that whether it was Peter Obi or Atiku Abubakar, fuel subsidy would have gone. I sincerely believe that President Tinubu inherited from his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, a dead country, almost; a financially wrecked and wretched country; a country that was on life support. But here’s my beef.

Tinubu knew all that. He knew what went on under Buhari. But,  along with others, mum was the word. Instead, as the Leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and one who contributed, to a very large extent, the making if  President Buhari, Tinubu was in the forefront of  praising Buhari as the best thing that happened to Nigeria. He upheld Buhari as a great leader, prudent leader who knew where the shoe we wore was pinching us. But it turns out a lie. It was a cover-up.

From all that Tinubu’s subordinates are saying today, the Country he inherited from Buhari was finished. But, he hid the truth from us then. Opinion is  that was deceitul; that Mr President owes us an apology for deceiving us into believing that Nigeria under Buhari was doing well; was thriving.

However, while we await for those  apologies, the one over the minors is urgent.

As I watched the video and photographs of the minors that were arraigned in Court that black day by the Federal  Government, my heart sank. I was diminished as a human being.

Picked up from, mostly, the North, especially Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto, the Police  arraigned them for daring to show face during the #EndBadGovernance protest which held from August 1-10, 2024. They said the minors  held Russian flags; that they took part in the destruction and looting of public properties. And so, among other things, they were charged for committing treason; of trying to overthrow the Government of President Tinubu.

They arrested and held the minors for over three months in a despicable environment,  an environment worse than a pig’s sty. They juggled them from Police custody to Prison custody. They kept them with hardened criminals. There was no change of clothes for them. They hardly took their bath. Feeding was epileptic. And when it came, the food was worse than that fed to a a dog owned by a hungry villager.

Their appearance in Court raised emotions to high heavens. It was a combination of anger against our leaders, and disgust with a Government that treated minors like animals. They were malnourished, so malnourished and tired six of them collapsed in Court.

If their arraignment and the treason charge preferred against them were outrageous, worse was the reaction of the Police and the Judge before whom they were arraigned.

Reacting to the collapse of some of the kids, Police Force Spokesperson, Adejobi Olumuyiwa, ACP,   said it was a pretense. That the minors faked their collapse  in Court. He capped it by teaching us law. He told us seven year-olds can be arraigned in Court for crime committed. But he  cleverly failed to tell us where such seven year-olds should be detained. Or the type of Court before which they should be arraigned.

When the careless and insensitive statement was published, it was attributed to IGP  Egbetokun. Surprisingly, the IGP did not immediately distance himself or office from it. For a couple of days, he said nothing. He only reacted when Tinubu realised the damage the arraignment of the minors has done to his image and that of Nigeria, globally,  and ordered  their immediate release. He also ordered the investigation of all those involved in their detention and arraignment.

When Egbetokun reacted, he said he was in Glasgow for a conference and ordered for an investigation too.

That was when the Force Spokesperson also made a U-turn.

But questions. Those minors were arrested by the Police and detained by them. They were in the custody of the Police from where they moved them from one detention centre to another. So, how come nobody briefed the IGP?  How come he was hearing about their sorry state for the first time after they were arraigned? Why did the IGP wait until the President’s reaction to react? What was the IGP’s reaction when the Force Spokesperson accused the minors who fainted in Court of faking? That accusation was insensitive.

In more civilized climes, he would have lost his job as the Force Spokesperson, and would, by now, be fighting to keep his uniform – first for his insensitive accusation, and second, for misrepresenting the IGP, unless he ran the statement by him.

As for the Judge, I was perplexed when he granted the minors bail to the tune of N10 million each. Where he thought the minors, most of whom have no kobo to their names, most of whom hardly understood what they were doing or what the charge was about,  most of whom were forced to join the protest because they had no food to eat, and no place to sleep, some of whom have no addresses, would get a whopping N10m beats me.

I join those who thanked President Tinubu for ordering the release of the minors, and the withdrawal of the charges against them. Still what is their fate, their future? How are we sure a number of them are not back to the streets? Who has asked after them since then? Where is the finding of the investigation the President ordered? And that of the IGP?

On release, the minors were driven to Aso Rock. I still don’t understand why? Was it to see the beauty and splendour of Aso Rock? I never read anywhere that the minors were apologized to. I read that they were counseled – not for their mental well being, the trauma they went through, but  against joining  any such protests again. Then, they were sent back to their States.

In Kano, the Governor received them and talked about rehabilitating them. Nobody has heard anything thereafter. In Kaduna, the Governor gave each of them a mobile phone. What was that for? Of what use? There was no apology.

The case of the minors is scandalous. It is even worse than that because those who should tell the President the truth are not doing so. Instead, they are telling him, and us, that the minors deserved what happened to them; that the President released them because of his magnanimity; he released them because he is the father of the Nation.

But an unsolicited advice for Mr President: Ignore them. Apologise to the minors and the country. Apologise for making us a laughing stock before the world. Those that tell you otherwise mean no good for you. When the chips are down, they will answer the names of their fathers. It will just be you battling with the mess. Remember, the bulk stops on your table. And it is your testimonial  that is being written.

Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of THE SOURCE (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com.  Email: [email protected], [email protected]