Suffering Nigerians currently face is artificial, not a natural disaster – CISLAC ED

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

The Executive Director, Civil Society and Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Mallam Auwal Ibrahim Musa Rafsanjani, has rated the planned nationwide protests in Nigeria as already a success, considering the fact that the Federal Government and security agencies have been having sleepless night over the plan.

In a video of his interview featuring on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief watched by The DEFENDER on Wednesday July 31, 2024, the CISLAC ED explained why Nigerians are unhappy and angry with the government and gave advice as to how to fix things to make the people happy and the country better.

Ask if he thought the protests would pave to any achievement, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani said, “In my opinion, the protest has already succeeded in the sense that, as a result of the clarion call, legitimate demands by Nigerians for government to sit up and plug the leakages and ensure that the country’s economic deterioration is addressed, ensure that the killings and kidnapping that have been going on without much attention from government to rescue and protect the citizens are things that make people to say “Look, because Nigerians must be alive before any other things.”

“And then also for that government and even the security agencies themselves have shifted from the initial threat of almost saying “Come out we would eliminate you”. Now you are hearing the security, they themselves saying that “Okay, you should do this thing but do it in a particular area and this and that.” And for the fact that the President, who at the initial stage was more like adamant on some of these issues and demands that the protesters are making, now you hear that government is making so many commitments. This is what was expected even before this tension built up to this.”

He wondered that leaders in the country could go to the point of imposing artificial hardship on the people and still not listen or expect them to complain.

“Let the government listen to the people. Let the government take practical steps to ameliorate the suffering that Nigerians are going through, which is not a natural disaster. If Nigeria is tested with natural disaster, how are we going to overcome it? But these are all artificial problems caused by some wicked unpatriotic public officials because, if you continue to sabotage laws that you are supposed to be protecting in getting a monumental looting, you just heard the Interpol saying that every hour hundreds of dollars are laundered from the country. This is what we have been talking about.

“You hear that people have been purchasing Nigerians, they kidnap them, they have been trading with them and nobody bothers to trace them, nobody is able, with this age of technology, to find who are these people and you hear government saying the names of people who are financing terrorism and nobody is arrested, nobody is asked to account for all the criminalities they have been doing. That is why Nigerians are angry, that is why Nigerians are not happy.

“And then suddenly you came you removed all the subsidies, everywhere in the world you have one form of subsidy or the other. You removed electricity (subsidy), rather, you increased the electricity tariffs, you increased petroleum products (prices), you increased virtually everything and some of the agencies that have nothing to do with revenue have become revenue generating (agencies) and nobody is accounting for all that.

“These are the things that really make Nigerians to be angry with the system. It’s not necessarily just about only one government, it is a continous recklessness by public officials but government is government and the current government came and added more things that made Nigerians to be unhappy.

“Look at N90 billion that was allocated to support Hajj, many of the pilgrims were not even airlifted no pilgrim was given the necessary treatment that he supposed to get in Saudi Arabia and nobody has accounted forbthat money. How can we continue with this kind of looting and extravagance and Nigerians are hungry, no job, manufacturers are closing down leaving Nigeria, even local businesses are being sabotaged. How can we continue to run a countryblikebthis?

“At international level we are being disrespected! Look, we have duty and responsibility; even those who have been hired to come rubbish the legitimate the legitimate concern of Nigerians, they should remember that they themselves too have families, not all of them in their families are lucky to have access to government money or protection. So, it is for the betterment of our country and it is important that both the citizens and the government work together to rescuevthe country because this is the only country we have.

“Even if you Japa, even if you travel abroad, even if you get second passport, you are still not like fulfilled person. So, for me honestly speaking, government should sit down and say, “Okay, in the interim, this is what we ate doing, in the medium term this is what we are going to do and in the longer term this what we are going to do.” Not bullying, nit attacking, not insulting, not using public taxpayers money to engage some faceless groups to say that they are doing protests against the protests. All these are not lasting solutions. Let us be sincere.

“If our government is sincere, honestly speaking Nigerians are patient, they can actually understand and appreciate. But when you are bullying people, you are insulting them, at the same time you are still creating opportunity for looting, stealing, creating insecurity, artificial insecurity just to justify why you are taking public taxpayers money. I don’t think it is the solution.

“So, I am happy that, to a large extent, government now is listening and I hope it is a sincere listening with a durable solution not just to suppress the protest because I can tell you that this protest is even good because it is organised by some people, let us not pray for the one that we do not know how to control. But I believe that with the government being honest and sincere and being committed to ensuring that they plug leakages, because ultimately, if looting, stealing and reckless spending continue and you continue to mock the citizens, put them in a terrible situation, definitely this tension cannot go. I hope that government will sit down and do something.”

Asked how realistic are the protesters’ demand of electricity and fuel subsidies return in the current economic reality, Rafsanjani said:

“First and foremost I don’t think this protest is about few groups of people. I think virtually every Nigerian is protesting including you, my sister. You may not come out to say you are protesting to come tobtge street, but definitely you are feeling the pains of the economic hardship, the sense of insecurity in the country and the sense of bastardisation of our public institutions. So, virtually every Nigerian, one way or the other, is feeling the pain of how our country is governed.

“The cost of governance in this country is ridiculous. So, it is not just about people who are coming to do protest on the streets. I think this protest is in many forms, there are some people who would want to come out physically and identify themselves, there are some othe4 Nigerians who are feeling pains and are talking about them, everyday you move around in the community and hear people are nit happy they are angry thebwaybthings are hapoening. So, I don’t think it is just thesevfew people who say that they are the leaders. I don’t this protest is restricted to only people who are coming to do that.

“Let me tell you, everywhere you go including even the police. Do you know that some of the police people their living cncondition is so terrible. So, they may not come out and protest, but they are complaining inside them. They are not happy. The same thing with the Army, even the Chief of Army Staff came to tell the whole world that the Army are underpaid and they human beings, they are Nigerians, they go to the same market.

“So, there are many forms of dissatisfaction that people are expressing . It is just that this only they choose to say tgatbthey want to come out as they are guaranteed by the Constitution to come out and match, maybe that is the best way government will attend or listen to them. Otherwise, many Nigerians in one area are protesting because they are not happy. That’s the truth.”

On how realistic the demands in the current economic reality Rafsanjani responded, saying: “The government said the saving they making from the subsidy removal they are providing it to the state governors. I can tell you to go to every state in Nigeria, almost, I can tell you that those monies provided by the Federal Government tobthe state governors are not judiciously utilised to address these challenges that Nigerians are facing.

“Now if you have that money and you are just recknmless spending it, you can as well reverse it back to address the fundamental things that every Nigerian can benefit.

“We have seen this reversal by Yar’Adua. Did the country collapse when Yar’Adua when Yar’Adua reduced the petroleum products prices? No. In fact, Nigeria was moving.

“Our problem is not about subsidising for the citizens, it is the looting, the stealing that is going on.

“On regular basis, everywhere in government now, people’s mindset ‘How do I corner X, Y, Z?’ We cannot continue to run a country like that and then you explain tobthe citizens who are, at the end of the day, suffering for even what to eat to keep quiet. I think, for me, Nigerians have been very patient not just for Tinubu administration but for the preceding administrations because they followed the same pattern of emasculated the citizens, creating policies that are completely very hash and hard and they don’t even comply with them by themselves,” he said.