By. Innocent Nasuk Dajang,
The recent happenings in Nigeria have left so much to be desired of the “Giant of Africa”. With an already poor economy and an infamous tag of “the poverty capital of the world”, Nigerians were recently confronted with a number of anti-people policies by its government.
Value Added Tax rose to 7.5 % from 5 %, stamp duty was introduced, the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, was increased and is now selling at ₦160 per litre, and the hike in the unit cost of electricity tariff, among a number of other harsh economic policies, are the new realities for Nigerians.
While Nigerians were battling with all these in the midst of the pains afflicted by COVID–19, the NLC and the TUC – charged with the responsibility of protecting the interests of Nigerians – failed woefully in their effort at getting the government to abandon its anti-people policies. (Some quarters say the Labour and Union officials emerged from the meeting in which they had gone to negotiate with government officials on behalf of Nigerians smiling. I will not comment further on what that could suggest.)
Nigerians have been visibly incensed over the way the government handled the issue of the COVID-19, and in particular how palliatives meant for poor vulnerable Nigerians were distributed. 
The widespread mismanagement of palliative funds and goods is now in the public domain, and Nigerians are not left in doubt as to what became of monies and materials which became available to the federal, state and local governments on behalf of the people. While students were at home, the government claimed to have successfully spent billions of Naira on its school feeding programme! And, of course, Nigerians will not forget in a hurry the NDDC boss’ melodrama at the National Assembly, a comical display that has since prompted Nigerians to farcically say that a sure way to escape corruption charges in Nigeria is for one to learn the art of fainting during probe panel proceedings and you are off the hook! 
So much for a “Giant of Africa” where while it is difficult for ₦30,000 minimum wage to be implemented in a number of states, political office holders are swimming in millions and living comfortably, even lavishly, in the midst of the pains of many Nigerians. 
And as though that wasn’t enough trouble to contend with, the number one citizen of the country in his widely-criticized Independence Day message to Nigerians sadly compared his beloved country with Saudi Arabia to justify the hike in the pump price of petroleum! But our beloved first citizen did not remember to compare the state of our economy and standard of living with that of Saudi Arabia. That is an issue for another day.
Yet another pain of Nigerians came from the government’s approval for the construction of a rail line to Niger Republic. Indeed many Nigerians were not convinced by the government’s justification for this unpopular act. There are many road networks in Nigeria that are in deplorable conditions and a number of states with high agricultural yields do not have rail lines connecting them to other parts of the country for commercial purposes, yet the government chose to link Nigeria up with Niger Republic! For what economic value, exactly? 
Let us not forget the rising external debt profile of Nigeria as a result of excessive borrowing, particularly from China, which is a flagrant mortgaging of the future of Nigeria’s young population. 
Nigerians are asking questions but there are no answers. The people feel there is absolutely no point borrowing because with a cut in the cost of governance and the prudent utilization of recovered loot, the nation can be self-sustaining.
Nigerians, and especially the youths, are angry. There are no jobs and the economy is not favourable for the youths to engage in meaningful businesses even after graduation from higher institutions and being jobless for years. Where there are job openings, the political class sweep them all for their children, their wards and their close relations. Only a few get employed “miraculously”. Needless to say, there is mounting frustration all over the land. 
We have often claimed that the youths are the future of our dearly beloved “Giant of Africa”, yet for eight months now, many of them have been at home due to the strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over government’s inability to honour its part of the agreement it willfully and consciously entered into with the Union. 
The government is playing politics with the future of the youths and I do not believe that the government’s failure to do what is needful in order to improve the quality of education in the country is any way of demonstrating its appreciation for the value of education in the country and its concern for, and commitment to, the future of its young generation. Apart from all these issues building and pilling up in the minds of the youths, the indiscriminate killings of innocent Nigerians by members of the SARS unit of the Nigeria Police Force (I wonder why the word “Force” is used rather than “Service”!) and the brutality of the police on Nigerians became the last straw.
In the heat of the moment, with heightened tensions over everything going wrong for the “Giant of Africa”, and with countries like South Africa and Ghana that enjoyed Nigeria’s goodwill over the years, taunting and ridiculing Nigerians doing businesses in their countries and asking for repatriation of Nigerians from their countries, and with the activities of “Yahoo Boys” doing a great disservice to the image of Nigeria abroad, the burden became too heavy for Nigerians to bear.
The youths, therefore, took to the streets in their numbers for days protesting, at first for an end to SARS under the hash tag #EndSARS, and later metamorphosing it into a metaphor for “Bad Governance in Nigeria”, thus culminating in a call for a total reform of the nation’s fortunes.
Rather than addressing the genuine demands of the youths, the government remained silent and the number one citizen till the time of writing this piece is yet to address the nation on the current happenings in the country, prompting the National Assembly to call on the President to do the needful, even urging him to invoke an executive order to end the situation. 
It is unfortunate that instead of addressing the challenges of the youths, the government is blaming the situation on the strike embarked upon by the ASUU and attributing it to the idleness of students who form the large percentage of the protesters.
The nation has failed completely to meet the demands of the ASUU to return students to their classrooms and that is in no way the fault of the ASUU but the government’s for not honouring the terms of the agreement it signed with the Union to upgrade the learning facilities for our dear students to bring them at par with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
We cannot be called the “Giant of Africa” for nothing. We must demonstrate that to the world by making Nigeria the economic hub of not just Africa, but the world, and that, I believe, is the cry of the youths to have total freedom from the shackles of poverty and underdevelopment to a state of social and economic emancipation, where there is prosperity visible even to the blind everywhere in the land.
To state it in clear terms, what the youths are saying is that there will not be anything wrong in having countries around the world coming to Nigeria for medical attention, education, tourism, and other opportunities. We have what it takes to justify the slogan of “Giant of Africa” and we must ensure it comes to pass, and that is what is being clamored for by the ongoing protests across the nation. 
There is blatant disregard for law and order in the land, with even more flagrant disregard for lives and property. Imagine the killing/massacre of unarmed peaceful protesters at Lekki Toll Gate (“Lekki-Bloodgate”, if you like) on the 20th of October, 2020! Such are the things the youths are against.
Where in the world do such things happen? Is it the duty of the military to act in civil cases? Where were the Police/MOPOL, Civil Defense? Why open fire on innocent, unarmed and defenseless citizens? Are we done tackling BHT, bandits, killer herdsmen, cultists, rapists, kidnappers, armed robbers, etc?      With all these happenings, are we really and truly the “Giant of Africa”?  The protests and the call with one voice for good governance by the youths are a signal that there is high level of awareness and consciousness in the nation. It is further demonstration that a united people can move any government and have their demands met.
That is evident from the immediate disbandment of SARS and the introduction of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit, as well as other reforms outlined by the IG of Police. The National Assembly has also acted, especially with the pronouncement by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila not to sign off on any budget that fails to address the current agitation of the youths and the agreement the FG entered into with the ASUU.
This gives a ray of hope that indeed Nigeria can be the true “Giant of Africa”, not just in name and in number, but in every aspect of the nation’s economy. 
To conclude this piece, it is important to agree that the time for genuine reflection on our status as the “Giant of Africa” is now. We need to ensure that we collectively correct the systemic failure in Nigeria and build strong institutions that will be functional and well designed to address the challenges of our contemporary Nigeria and the world.
This current agitation by our beloved youths is an indication that enough is indeed enough, and Nigerians deserve the best form of governance one can imagine or dream of anywhere in the world.
Nigerians deserve a good educational system, good hospitals, constant and steady power supply, a viable transportation system, clean water, adequate sanitation, decent wages, effective and prudent management of resources, an efficient agricultural system, an efficient security network, good foreign relations, a functional democracy, a strong judiciary and many more for the comfort and wellbeing of every Nigerian.

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Innocent Nasuk Dajang writes: Giant of Africa: A Reflection