Nigerian officials are hopeful that plans for a nationwide protest on August 1 regarding the country’s escalating living costs will be abandoned. Frustrated with a crippling inflation rate of 34.2%, Nigerians are organizing the demonstration through social media.
The cost-of-living crisis worsened last year when President Bola Tinubu eliminated a popular fuel subsidy and implemented measures that devalued the naira, negatively impacting millions of citizens.
On Tuesday, the national assembly voted to more than double the monthly minimum wage for federal workers from 30,000 naira to 70,000 naira (approximately $43). However, this measure, which still requires the president’s approval, has done little to quell the calls for a nationwide demonstration.
“On the issue of the planned protest, Mr. President does not see any need for that,” Information Minister Mohammed Idris said after a Cabinet meeting. Idris said Tinubu wants the protesters to suspend their demonstration plans in order to give the president time to respond to the country’s economic hardships.
It is not immediately clear if Nigerians will heed the president’s call to avoid the demonstration, which some are calling the End Bad Governance in Nigeria protest.
“Some groups of people, self-appointed crusaders and influencers, have been strategizing and mobilizing potential protesters to unleash terror in the land under the guise of replicating the recent Kenya protests,” Kayode Egbetokun, Nigeria’s inspector general of police, warned.
Dozens of people have died in anti-government protests in Kenya in recent weeks. Nigerian officials are leery of a similar situation emerging in Nigeria.
“We must ensure that these protests do not snowball into violence or disorder,” Egbetokun said.
“This is a Nigerian family issue and all of us are looking at this issue very well,” Idris said.
“We hope that peace will prevail at the end of the day.”
