Nigerians not hungry? Really, Mr. Onanuga?

In 2023, just before the election that brought in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the cry on the streets was “pressure ti wà” (we are under pressure). The people knew that time of unique hardship occasioned by the absence of the Nigerian currency. The Buhari government had launched a change of the Naira and thereby brought about scarcity of the currency and untold hardship on the populace. It was one weird economic policy of the Muhammadu Buhari administration which could not be sensibly explained or competently defended by anyone. Of a fact, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was a presidential candidate at that period, campaigned with the misnomer. He also decried the policy, and the petroleum scarcity that garnished the hardship. Tinubu had promised Nigerians that he was going to rectify all that, and that he would also make things better.

A few months after that “pressure ti wa” period, Bola Tinubu had been transformed. He had been elected, sworn into office, and he had assumed that mouthful title of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. As statutorily required of Nigerian presidents, he had moved into a rocky fortress called Presidential Villa in Abuja. From Abuja, he came to his Lagos. He was fresh and vibrant like a new sheriff. While in Lagos, Tinubu went to pray at the Lagos Central Mosque. Of course, he was still being assessed as a new president, although he already had worn the toga of a president who hit the ground running against the populist thoughts the people of the country had harboured about his administration.

Nigerians were still smarting from the confusion and hardship his administration’s sudden and haphazard removal of fuel subsidy had caused. It was a second phase of economic pressure on the citizenry. The Tinubu era pressure was now more painful because he did the exact opposite of what he said he was going to do with petroleum pricing. The pressure of the Tinubu era hit his admirers from both the emotional (moral) and economic sides because of their disappointment.

So, while at home in Lagos, President Tinubu went to pray at the Lagos Central Mosque. Of course, Nigerians were still observing him as the new president, but Tinubu already had worn the toga of a president who had hit the ground running against the populist thoughts the people of the country had harboured about his administration. Nigerians were still smarting from the confusion of his administration’s sudden and haphazard removal of fuel subsidy, a second phase of ‘pressure ti wa’.

The Tinubu era pressure was now more painful because he did the exact opposite of what he said he was going to do with petroleum pricing. So, the pressure of the Tinubu era hit both his admirers and opponents equally on the economic side, but differently on the moral side.

While leaving the mosque in Lagos, someone among the crowds which had trooped out to the streets to catch a glimpse of President Tinubu’s presidential convoy yelled in Yoruba language: Ebi n pa wá o! We are hungry. Just like the earlier message of ‘pressure’ from one man, that hunger message of another man also went viral on the social media. The cry by that man reflected the mood of the citizens and also came like a lone voice that expressed the disappointment of millions. It was like a follow-up version to ‘pressure ti wa’ and, just like the cry of the man in Abeokuta, the man in Lagos too had to let it out.

READ ALSO: Onanuga’s ‘no hunger’ comments show Tinubu’s disconnection from reality — ADC

And since that time, the government has only been reinforcing its call for patience on the part of the citizenry. The citizens have been charged to “tighten their belts” and understand that the policies would first be painful like the facial scar, before it heals, matures and then gives the beauty which is said to be the expected result. The people are frequently advised to hold fast and speak no evil. They are meant to endure while watching their leaders do the reverse of all the things that come from their mouths.

That was exactly what the Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, did yet again, on Tuesday. Since Ebi n pa wá o (We are hungry) is about the only thing Mr. Bayo Onanuga remembers about the hardship in the country, let us still echo it. Let us also remind him that Nigerians are also still under pressure. Perhaps, he would now help Nigerians to take the messages to the president. Let us also pray and hope that while he stands before the president interceding for us, he would not dismiss the cry of hapless Nigerians with the same disdain and insensitivity he displayed at the outset of that interview programme on Arise TV.

What Mr. Onanuga did at the early parts of that TV show was purely a display of Mmiri magbuo ndi gara ahia, nne m o-gara aga? It is literally a call for the rain do whatever its wishes were to anyone who went to the market since their mother isn’t any part of it. It is pristine insensitivity and utter aloofness on the part of Mr. Onanuga to believe that Nigerians are exaggerating their pains. It is an example of T’eni bàje ò kàn mi… He does not care whose ox is gored in the current economic situation in Nigeria, since he is immune to it.

Meanwhile, while addressing Nigerians on the celebration of Democracy Day anniversary on June 12, President Tinubu himself acknowledged the hardship being faced by Nigerians. He said that the government was working to ensure that in no time, things would begin to look up again for the people of Nigeria because his administration was working hard to bring the level of hardship in the country to a manageable level. Didn’t Mr. Onanuga listen to the broadcast, if he didn’t read it beforehand? Didn’t he hear what his principal, the President, said on this year’s anniversary of June 12? Why then has Mr. Onanuga decided to come out to deny what is obvious even to his own principal? What about one of his colleague-presidential aide who spoke glowingly about the macroeconomic successes of the Tinubu administration in three years but said that the micro component would soon be impacted? A lot has been said about the macro-economic component of the magic of this Tinubu administration on our economy, but we are living on the thread that its micro-economic component will soon manifest, and that Nigerians will soon feel the ease in inflation and sundry costs of living. For Mr. Onanuga, I think it is about the man who has eaten to his fill, who is oblivious of what the pangs of hunger feel like.

When it is postulated that people in government are unaware of the real world, and that they are usually told exactly what they want to hear, Mr. Onanuga is one of the perfect examples. He said his private workers tell him what things look like out there in the society. From what his workers told him, he couldn’t see the “level of hunger you people are talking about.” He didn’t say if his workers in Ajah, Lagos told him the truth about their daily transportation to and from work daily, and how that had not been adversely affected? They must also be telling their own boss only what he would love to hear.  In Nigeria, it is difficult to tell the leader the truth, we always don’t want to sting the ears of our lords. Such act has corrosive consequences. So, they are not to be disturbed by any abrasive verbal expressions.

Perhaps, that was why Mr. Onanuga felt that his ears were being irritated by the things he was hearing about the Tinubu government. He handled the questions from the Arise News interviewer, Mr. Charles Aniagolu, like the man was uttering sacrilege. He would have preferred to be confronted with the earlier ‘profanity’ of one Peter Obi, who had asked President Tinubu to resign as a result of the same issues Mr. Aniagolu were disturbing his ears with – acute inflation, hunger, high energy cost, insecurity. The words of Obi were the real reasons Onanuga came to speak. He could not see what everyone else is seeing. It is good that, at least, he is hearing it, and we must continue to echo it.

Since Mr. Bayo Onanuga was able to recall ebi n pay wa o, he should also be able to remember the episode of “pressure ti wa” and think about the place of Nigerians in his heart as he ruminates over the episodes.