Tinubu Carrying On With Bad Policies Despite Implications On Nigerians –Ojo

Comrade Victor Ojo is a prodemocracy activist, who as a union leader, was member of the student wing of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). He participated in the #EndSARS and #EndBAdGovernance protests. He tells BABATOPE OKEOWO why protests have not achieved the desired results and canvass for other actions to check bad governance in the country Since your participation in the #EndSARS protest; has anything changed? It has been part of my traits to move against bad governance and politics.

At that time, police brutality got to the level that any citizen that has blood running in his vein was left with no choice than to cry out. That was why we called the people out against government’s bad policies that we named #EndSARS. I was in the forefront of the nationwide mobilisation.



It was intended to correct people in government, especially the police to be human in their dealings with the populace. Alas! What we organised and projected as peaceful protest was met with high handedness by government’s security agencies, including the Nigerian military. And the story could be seen from the killing of innocent young citizens at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos and other parts of the country.

Let me say nothing had really changed because the set of leadership we have presently in Nigeria is an offshoot of the former government. But the essence of the #EndSARS movement is not defeated. It is a continuous thing that we know that with time things will change for the better.

What have been the achievements since the protest? Definitely, every movement has a tendency of defining a new course of event. The government of the time immediately scraped the arm of the Nigeria Police that was then referred to as Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). This again is a testimony to the fact that people in government did not really know the import of the protest.

The protest was against police brutality and other corrupt tendencies in government but government people thought it was only targeted at SARS as a police agency, so they quickly scraped that arm of the police. But, what did we see next is that they changed the name of the agency from SARS to Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) still doing things the same way as the scraped SARS. What this means is that government did not and has not learned any lesson from these protests.

Even to redress the brutalities that met the protest participants was made difficult. Imagine that till today, no one has been held to account for the killings at the Lekki toll gate during the protest. But at least the protest got Nigerians awake to the extent that more than 80 per cent of Nigerian youths stood up to vote against the government of that time by cueing behind a party that was not in reckoning to the extent that the party – Labour Party (LP) – won the last presidential election but for election manipulation by the party in power.

You also participated in last year’s national protest termed #EndBadGovernance protest despite not achieving much in the #EndSars protest. Don’t you see this as effort in futility? Yes, I did and I will still do if the situation continues like this. I am a Yoruba man and remember that our elders would say that: as long as lies remain in one’s head, blood stains will always be on one’s finger nails.

Again, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, in one of his books said: “The man dies in him that keeps silent in the face of tyrant and oppression.” The essence of these protests is to bring the government to terms with the yearnings of the Nigerian citizens.

But governments, year in and out, has failed to come to terms with what we are clamouring for. What are we saying? What are our demands? Give our people good governance, secure our people, as the essence of government is to provide security for the people been governed. Business cannot strive where the hallmark is insecurity, fight against corruption in government and provide an enabling environment for doing business.

This will make our youths get engaged. But the government has not been addressing these, and as long as things remain the same, then people will be readily available for protest and I will readily be part of the people, who will provide leadership for the protesters in any potential protest as long as it is for the emancipation of our people. What has been your experience with security agencies before and after the protest? Using the prefix is to start your question here sounds somehow to me when I am actually vast in lots of experiences in the hands of Nigeria security agencies and authorities.

Way back in my university days as a student union leader, I have been a subject of humiliation in the hands of security agencies. There was this particular one that I led students to do solidarity protests for MKO Abiola. As a member of the students wing of NADECO then.

It was when MKO Abiola declared himself as the President of Nigeria based on the June 12 election results. I was arrested during the solidarity protest, carried and thrown into a police Black Maria. Inside the police van, a can of tear gas was opened and poured on me.

That was the first time I knew that the can of tear gas contained substance that is in powdery form. I nearly suffocated. Sometimes early 2023 in IfiraAkoko, Ondo State, tyres of my car were shot at many times by unknown assailants to get rid of me or to instil fear on me to stop being anti government policies.

Before the last nationwide protest of last year, a source close to government informed me about the plan of government to frame me up to warrant my arrest and detention to prevent me from leading the protest in Akure, Ondo State. But, you know, like the late Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe, succinctly put it in one of his books – Things Fall Apart – if the hunters have learnt to shoot without missing, the birds will learn to fly without perching. So, I moved away from Akure to participate in the protest in Ibadan where the government and police attention was not on me.

The last one is the strange phone calls and threats from unknown persons, using hidden numbers to call to issue warnings to me to rather stay safe or continue to attack government policies. In fact, it has not been easy having to throw oneself up to stand with the people but again you know that evil will not end if we all keep silent and do nothing. What is your relationship with other human right activists? You see, there is no way one can do or organize a protest alone.

Right from my university days as a student union leader I have been in concert with other activists like Omoyele Swore. In fact, I was a union leader in the Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti (now renamed Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti) at a time Sowore was leading the students’ union in University of Lagos and we have since shared same view about government’s bad policies. That is the little I can reveal for now about that because it is not always secured to real your comrades in a public domain like this.

You know it is a strategy to keep your strength in your chest. What is your view on President Bola Tinubu’s government? Unlike Rambo OO7 that will think properly as to the need to shoot or not to shoot his victim, Bola Tinubu’s government has been rolling out bad economic policies before considering the implication on the citizens. And because of self-ego, he will insist on carrying on with the bad policies irrespective of the implications on the people.

For God’s sake, how can a man get to government and shortly after inauguration pronounced the removal of fuel subsidy, and since then, the masses of the people are back to abject property. Look at the level of corruption in government. The Beta Edugate.

What has happened to Beta Edu or the level of corrupt practice she got involved with as a minister under Tinubu’s government? You know that nothing has been heard about this high-level corruption. Tinubu, rather than being president for all, has raised nepotism to the highest level. Look at the economic team, it is made up of purely his boys from Lagos, his home state.

In fact, look at the level of the Naira being reduced to tissue paper, valueless. Let us look at the security situation of the country; it is getting worse under Tinubu. Kidnapping is on the increase.

During this regime, it has become a lucrative business for kidnappers because of the ransom involved. See, the truth must be told; this government is a failure ab initio..