As Nigeria celebrates 64 years of independence from British colonial rule on Tuesday, thousands of citizens gathered in the nation’s economic and political capitals, Lagos and Abuja, respectively, to protest high living and energy costs in Africa’s most populous nation.
For them, it is not a time for celebration as they called on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to address the soaring inflation and unprecedented economic hardship in the country.
The October 1, 2024 protest, tagged “FearlessInOctober”, was propagated on social media, some two months after the August #EndBadGovernance protests. The two demonstrations are synonymous in themes as aggrieved young people demand a reversal of petrol subsidy removal and electricity tariff increase.
On Tuesday, protesters gathered at the Utako area in Abuja, the country’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), waving the Nigerian Green-White-Green flag and banners with various inscriptions such as “EndBadGovernance”, “DiasporaVoting”, “EndHighLivingCosts”, amongst others.
In Lagos, around the state capital in Ikeja, the situation was the same as youths besieged the popular Ikeja UnderBridge area, with vehicular movement at a standstill on a day already declared a public holiday by the government for the celebration of Nigeria’s independence.
The protesters in Lagos also wielded large-format banners with boldly encrusted statements like, “Hunger Dey”, and “Reverse Anti-People, Neoliberal Policies Of Privatisation, Deregulation and Devaluation of Naira”, among others.
Activist Omoyele Sowore was spotted at the Lagos venue of the rally where he and other demonstrators geared up to march to the iconic and eponymous Gani Fawehinmi Park in the ever-busy Ojota area of Lagos to continue the protest against what they have termed anti-government policies.
Both in Lagos and Abuja, scores of security agents were seen on alert at the protest locations where they maintained a respectable distance from the demonstrators.
Aside from Lagos and Abuja, defiant protesters also gathered in some of Nigeria’s 36 states to trumpet their demands. The protests were held despite many warnings and dissuations from the government and security agencies.
Critics have faulted Tinubu’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the foreign exchange rates which many Nigerians believed were responsible for the unimaginable inflation and soaring living and energy costs in the country.
Energy costs have more than tripled since Tinubu took up the reins of government on May 29, 2023. Petrol prices per litre jumped up from around N200 to over N1,000 whilst electricity tariff quadrupled, impacting the manufacturing sector and the pocket of Nigerian households.
During his second Independence Day Anniversary Broadcast on Tuesday, Tinubu pleaded for more patience and time, saying his administration is retooling its economic policies for the good of common Nigerians.
The former Lagos governor sympathised with Nigerians over the economic hardship his reforms might have caused whilst he assured them that his administration had been busy implementing measures to bring down the skyrocketing cost of living.
