President Bola Tinubu’s former spokesman in the south east, Denge. Dr. Josef Onoh, has responded to Mr Peter Obi who said that the address to the nation made by the President on Sunday, failed to address critical issues that initially triggered the nationwide protests.
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Obi, in his reaction to the President’s nation address, said Tinubu failed to address the critical issues that brought about the protests but focused on past discussions.
But Onoh in responding to Obi’s claims stated that the President cannot address already addressed demands, maintaining that demands such as food security, wage increase, among others were addressed by Tinubu and asked Obi to go and verify his claims.
According to Onoh, the protesters in their new demands are seeking for scrapping of the 1999 constitution and its replacement with a people-made constitution.
According to him: “And I ask, if the constitution is scrapped, what would Nigeria be governed with? These protesters demand is a call for an interim government, and possibly military rule. Once the constitution is suspended, Tinubu ceases to be president because his powers as president are legitimized by the constitution.”
Onoh recalled that the Senate on 14th Feb 2024 constituted a 45-member committee to review and amend Nigeria’s Constitution, with members of the amendment committee drawn from all states, geo-political zones, political parties with representation in the Senate, and asked that the protesters should make submissions to their respective Senators.
Onoh said: “There is nowhere in our constitution that gives President Tinubu or anyone the powers to scrap a part of any arm of government. This demand calls for military rule. The other demand to make legislative work part-time would require a constitutional amendment which I already said they can engage their various Senators that are members of the constitution amendment committee as President Tinubu does not have the constitutional powers to make that amendment by fiat.
“The minimum wage demand has been addressed by the president. When the two major Labour unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) came to a compromise pegging the new minimum wage at N70,000. The president’s approval followed wide consultative meetings with governors, the organised private sector, and the labour bureaucrats.
“Tinubu promised to ensure that wages would be reviewed every three years, rather than the once in five-year-old order. Clearly, this demand by the protesters has been addressed by the president. Those who work in the public sector enjoy a lot of allowances, and lucrative training abroad and travelling excluding their basic salary. Some government agencies pay various training allowances to their staff beyond their basic salary. The president cannot be responsible for paying states’ civil servants.
“To invest heavily in education and give students grants, not loans and compulsory education across Nigeria, currently Some public universities institute scholarships for exemplary students, Some universities take over the fees of students especially first class students and also offer automatic employment. Federal government agencies like TETFUND, NDDC and PTDF have consistently funded students within and outside Nigeria.
“The protesters may not know that agencies like UBEC have been tackling the issue of compulsory education, but even after FG releases money, some states fail to pay their counterpart funding. It’s up to each state now to decide how to deal with the problem of free and compulsory education on their own.
“On the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, demilitarization of the southeast and release and compensation of EndSARS protesters; Although this demand has no relationship with the hunger protest, I wish to draw the attention of the protesters that Nnamdi Kanu’s case is in court, and on July 2024 Senators from the south-east geopolitical region prior to the protest held a closed-door meeting with Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, over the release of Nnamdi Kanu. While governors from the south-east region resolved to meet President Bola Tinubu over the release of Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“Led by Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south senatorial district, the Senators handed a letter to Fagbemi for onward transmission to “the presidency”. Earlier, about 50 members of the House of Representatives from various parts of the country, urged President Tinubu to free Nnamdi Kanu. Clearly this demand by the protesters has already been overtaken by events even before the protest.
“As for demilitarization of the southeast, I wish to draw the attention of the protesters that The South-East Governors Forum had since August 2023 resolved to deal decisively with perpetrators and sponsors of insecurity in the region individually and collectively in a declaration and communiqué issued at the end of its first meeting in Enugu. It’s important to note that the forum firmly resolved to fight insecurity decisively in the region in partnership with the Federal Government and other stakeholders.
“The Governor added that the forum resolved to hold a security and economic summit on a date to be announced. They commended the security agencies for their cooperation so far and encouraged them not to relent. It’s clear this demand should be presented to the south east Governors and not the Federal government.
“As for unconditional release and compensation for all EndSARS protesters, are the protesters aware that some of those who claimed to be EndSARS protesters looted, destroyed, burnt public properties and businesses?. Unfortunately this demand is beyond the president as major promoters of the endsars already instituted legal action against the Federal government before the Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS.
“Renationalise public enterprises sold to government officials and cronies: The protesters failed to list the specific public enterprises and the government officials who purchased them. Even if the assets were sold corruptly, it cannot be retrieved by presidential fiat. There is a legal process that can drag for many years. Only a military dictatorship or an autocrat can reverse such. Hence this demand is clearly not within reason and can’t be addressed by the president beyond this.
“Reinitiation of a corrupt-free subsidy regime to reduce hunger, starvation and multidimensional poverty: Despite the Federal government’s subsidy intervention, Nigerians and some elected state officials have abused subsidy regime as was clearly seen recently when the bags of rice that were donated by the Federal government were hidden in a warehouse and rebagged for sale despite how paltry, It’s important that the protesters take this demand to their elected state officials.
“Also The Management of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) successfully disbursed N20, 000.00 monthly stipends for the month of July to 20,371 students from six tertiary institutions. This initiative further underscores H.E. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s promised unwavering commitment to supporting Nigerian students by ensuring financial stability throughout their academic pursuit.
“Probing the past and present Nigerian leaders who looted the treasury, recovering the loot and putting the funds in a special account to fund education, healthcare and infrastructure: This demand has already been addressed and measures being taken as early as January 2024 when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission reopened money laundering cases against 13 former governors and some former and present ministers, including serving civil servants with the amounts involved running into over N853.8bn. While the agency, together with other relevant agencies, are working on modalities to block loopholes so that no one can loot again?
“Restructuring Nigeria to accommodate diversity, resource control decentralization and regional autonomy: This demand has far been dealt with by previous governments with NDDC and President Bola Tinubu has signed into law bills to accelerate development across geo-political zones in the country.
“The President assented to the North-West Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024, and the South-East Development Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2023. Restructuring Nigeria will require a constitutional amendment and Tinubu cannot do it by fiat. Hence the protesters can make their submissions to the Senate committee representative on constitution amendment.
“End banditry and terrorism and violent crimes: This demand is with the limits of the President and so far President Bola Tinubu has engaged Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS to work towards the establishment and sustenance of a regional standby force for the security and economic advancement of the community. During the opening of the 65th Ordinary Session of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government in Abuja, he had highlighted the expediency of a standby force in the face of growing security threats.
“The Regional Action Plan against Terrorism has enhanced cooperation on training, intelligence sharing, and humanitarian interventions. In addition to this, the Ministers of Finance and Defence met recently in Abuja to raise funds for activating the ECOWAS Standby Force to boost counter-terrorism efforts. Member countries are also displaying their commitment to combating insecurity by individually increasing their defence budgets in order to acquire necessary equipment and ensure preparedness. Clearly the president has addressed the issue prior to the protest.
“Establishing a special energy fund to drive investments in the power sector: This demand has been addressed by the previous administration when former President Buhari signed a bill into law to allow states to generate their own electricity. Nigeria also secured an Energy Development Bank for Africa with proposed headquarters in Abuja recently to identify and develop Africa’s energy sources. With Abia state leading the way, Lagos, Kano, and 10 other states have concluded plans to start generating power in their respective states in conformity with the Electricity Act 2023. Some of these states had established their electricity market laws and were waiting for the approval of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to have independent regulatory bodies different from the NERC owned by the Federal Government; this will clearly create a competitive market and tariff variations.
“Reconstitution of Nigeria’s electoral body to remove corrupt individuals and partisan appointees: This demand is baseless and can’t be addressed by the president or electoral amendments as it’s a demand floating on unverified criminal allegations, and accusation of the INEC chairman being bribed and thereby compromising the election. No evidence has ever been shown of how much he was given? How much money was he paid and in which bank account was it deposited? There’s a need for our protesters to make demands that are not motivated by unverified accusations all in the name of Urge to protest.
“Massive investment in public works and industrialization to employ Nigerians: Many among the youth and protesters publicly opposed the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway the present administration embarked upon and sided with Landmark leisure centre despite his properties not adversely affected. I urge our protesters to take time and reflect on their demands. We must all agree on what we want as a people, not everything is achieved by protests.
“Massive shake up in the Nigerian judiciary to remove cabals of corrupt generation of judges:
This clearly isn’t a demand but a distraction hence the president isn’t expected to deal with distraction. Historically, the Nigerian Judicial Commission has disciplined many judges implicated for corruption. An example was of a judge hearing an election petitions case and receiving a donation for his father’s funeral from the defendant’s lawyer, who was a SAN. They dismissed the judge and had the lawyer derobed of his SAN. Many judges have had their promotion stunted and dismissed. Because of the way the judiciary is, these things are not always in the press. Hence the President isn’t expected to address an addressed demand.
“Disapora voting: This is subject to electoral act amendment and not by Presidential fiat hence it’s not an economic demand nor a demand that can be addressed by the president rather it’s a demand for the national assembly.
“Revert petrol pump price to N100/litre: This demand is outside reason and even the protesters know it’s not achievable. Because To get oil from the ground, there needs to be exploration (usually seismic studies) which are very expensive, and if it is offshore, even worse because to keep a seismic vessel on the sea which also costs a lot then to get 1 litre of fuel into your car, there are costs: (1) exploration cost, (2) production cost, (3) refining cost, and (4) landing cost. If you put in these costs, it would be suicidal to sell petrol at one hundred naira. The current administration is already working on fixing all the country’s refineries and to rejig the power sector as part of measures to recover and turn around the nation’s ailing economy.
“Finally, it’s clear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had addressed the protesters’ demands even before they were made. I urge all protesters to give way to dialogue, President Tinubu isn’t our problem, rather we are our own problem because we have failed to ask the right questions. If your Excellency doubts my submission, please go and verify!
“And to Mr President, you are our President, listen to the people, deep in our hearts we know you are doing your best but we need you to do more. Your nation needs you and it’s the most important time in our history to renew hope. Your cabinet is heavily compromised, don’t wait till the agitations of the masses force you to reshuffle your cabinet, the time is now.”
