Nigeria: Citizens of Africa’s leading economic power “are hungry”, unions threaten to blockade country

By:Souleymane Loum

This was not supposed to occur in Africa’s leading economic power, which nevertheless has no shortage of revenue – coming from oil and gas – plus additional resources coveted by foreign investors. But it has transpired: Nigerians are starving. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who took the reins of the country in February 2023, has not kept his pledges. Theoretically, he still has time but will his fellow citizens give him any? Yesterday, Tuesday, February 27, the Nigerian Labor Union announced a two-day strike, threatening to block key sites to demonstrate its outrage against the high cost of living and an economic policy that no longer feeds the 225 million inhabitants (the country’s most populated continent).

“Nigerians, today, let us stand up and tell Mr. President what he is supposed to hear and what we must tell to Mr. President. Nigerians are hungry. There is hunger in the country,” chanted Agnes Sessi, president of the Nigeria Labor Congress, Lagos branch.

Everything that has been tried for several weeks by the federal administration to restrain inflation has failed. “If you go to the market today, purchase a product, come back the next day, the price keeps changing. Spectacular advance, more than 300% from December to today. Impossible to continue like this. The government must adopt a policy now to ease suffering and bring inflation to a minimum level. The net earnings of several workers can no longer bring them home,” confides Folarin Opeyemi, entrepreneur/protester, reports Africa News this Wednesday.

As soon as he assumed the supreme office, Bola Tinubu launched a series of proactive but much-criticized reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of the country’s multiple exchange rate. The national currency, the naira, suffered an unprecedented depreciation against the dollar. If we add to this gloomy global economic situation, weighed down by two battles(in Ukraine and the Middle East), inflation is reaching new heights…

What Bola Tinubu parade will come out of his hat to alleviate the population? This is the question all Nigerians ask themselves. What is certain is that the head of the Federation will have to find solutions quickly if he does not desire his voters to make him pay for his lavish lifestyle maintained by public funds.