Massive protest over high cost of living grips oil-producing Nigeria

Aug 08, 2024 News

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu faces a backlash over his government’s spending plans despite the country’s mounting debts and cost-of-living crisis. Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty Images

Kaieteur News – Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies, blessed with abundant oil and natural resources, is currently grappling with one of its worst economic crises. The nation’s economic instability has led to widespread protests as citizens, driven by hunger and frustration, take to the streets, according to several international reports.

With inflation soaring and the cost of living escalating, the once-thriving economy is now under immense strain, drawing significant international attention. Nigeria is the second largest oil and gas producer in Africa (after Angola). Crude oil from the Niger Delta basin comes in two types: light, and comparatively heavy – the lighter has around 36 of API gravity while the heavier has 20–25 of API gravity. Both types are paraffinic and low in Sulphur. Nigeria’s economy and budget have been largely supported from income and revenues generated from the petroleum industry since 1960.[3] Statistics as of February 2021 shows that the Nigerian oil sector contributes to about 9% of the GDP of the nation.

A CNN report “Violence erupts as Nigerians protest hunger across the nation” highlights protest across multiple cities in Nigeria as frustrated citizens took to the streets, voicing their anger over increasing hunger and “bad governance.”

Gunshots rang out in the capital Abuja and also in the neighboring Niger state as police lobbed tear gas to disperse defiant protesters. In Niger, at least six people are now feared dead, local media reported. The state’s police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun told CNN in a statement that operatives arrested 11 armed “hoodlums” who set fire to a government building after looting it. Abiodun said police officers also dispersed protesters who had occupied a major highway, adding that “there was no loss of life.”

Dele Farotimi, a spokesperson for the coalition coordinating the protests, attributed the large nationwide turnout of protesters to hunger, which he says “unifies every Nigerian across the political, ethnic, and religious divides.”

CNN reported that this is the first major coordinated protest in Nigeria since the deadly EndSARS demonstrations against police brutality in 2020, which resulted in deaths and injuries after security forces opened fire on unarmed protesters.

Demonstrators gather during the ‘End Bad Governance’ protest at Ikeja, Lagos, on August 1, 2024. Benson Ibeabuchi/Bloomberg/AFP/Getty Images

Farotimi added that Nigerians were also pained watching their leaders live in luxury while they struggled to make ends meet. “It has gotten to that point where the people just need to be heard,” he said.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has faced a backlash over his government’s spending plans despite the country’s mounting debts and cost-of-living crisis. Last year, lawmakers rejected plans for a multimillion-dollar presidential yacht before approving a budget that allocated millions of dollars for a presidential fleet, including the purchase of SUV vehicles for the presidency and the First Lady’s Office. The budget also allocated funds to cover the cost of renovating the president’s residential quarters. Analysts told CNN at the time it was “hypocrisy” for the government to spend on luxuries while impoverished citizens suffer hardship.

Moreover, DW a German-based media entity reported that Nigerians’ anger over rampant inflation and the spiraling cost of food and medicine has reached fever pitch.

Toyin Ogundeko, a resident of Lagos and a caterer by profession, lives with asthma. Her son has the condition, too. But medicines have become so expensive in Nigeria that they can’t afford the inhalers they need. Amid a worsening economic crisis, Ogundeko isn’t sure how they will get by. “With the way the economy is going, things are really getting tough. You’re struggling to buy foodstuffs, and you’re also trying to stock up on your medication,” she told DW.

“So, for me I can cut down on the inhaler for myself. I won’t cut it for my child,” she said. Furthermore, Nigeria also faces an energy crisis. President Bola Tinubu is trying to rejuvenate the national power grid by pouring in public money instead of subsidizing electricity for those who cannot afford to pay. After he scrapped fuel subsidies, Tinubu did away with a series of electricity subsidies.

“If there is power in Nigeria today, all artisans that depend on power to do their business will go back to doing their business at a cheaper cost than they are doing now,” said financial analyst and former banker Aminu Philip Yado.

Most business owners are forced to buy generators to keep operations going. This trend, the financial analyst told DW, is not sustainable. In the meantime, citizens like Toyin Ogundeko and her son are desperate. “People have all sorts of complicated conditions, and imagine how they’re coping?” she said. “So, for me it’s a plea to the government: Whatever needs to be done, first find a way to stabilize this economy. Things are getting out of hand.”

• API, crises, Economic, Nigeria, protest