Few weeks after residents of Kano, Niger, Lagos and some other parts of the country took to the streets over economic hardship, a similar incident occurred in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State.
On Monday morning, protesters converged on Mokola area of Ibadan over high cost of living, food inflation and hardship in the country.
They wielded placards with inscriptions such as ‘The poor are starving,’ ‘Tinubu, don’t forget your promises’, among others.
Policemen were seen guarding the protesters against taking law into their hands.
The police had on Sunday warned that no breach of peace would be allowed during any protest in the state.
Nigerians have been complaining bitterly about the current situation.
Daily Trust had reported how Nigerians in some parts of the country have resorted to using charcoal as the cost of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, otherwise known as cooking gas, has continued to skyrocket.
This is just as the cost of charcoal has also risen owing to high demand, with some people switching to firewood.
Checks by Daily Trust in Abuja, Kano, Lagos and Jos, showed that citizens were filling a 12.5 kilogramme cylinder of cooking gas with about N18,000.
The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers (NALGAM) had last year predicted that a 12.5kg cylinder would cost N18, 000 going by the frequent increases.
Last November, following a rise in the price of cooking gas per kg from about N700 to above N1,100, the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, constituted a committee headed by the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, to come up with recommendations on how to boost supplies and crash the price within a week.
Despite that assurance, the price of cooking gas has continued to increase with a kilogramme selling for N1,400 in some parts of the country. This translates into 17,500 for a 12.5 kg cylinder.
Last week, the African Development Bank (AfDB) had reported that rising prices of fuel and other commodities could lead to social unrest in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Angola, and Kenya.
The AfDB gave the warning in its macroeconomic performance and outlook for 2024 in which it projected Africa’s economy to grow higher than the 3.2 per cent recorded in 2023.
The bank cautioned that an increase in fuel and commodity prices occasioned by currency depreciation or subsidy removal in Nigeria, Angola, Kenya, and Ethiopia could trigger internal conflicts.
It stated, “Internal conflicts and violence could also result from rising prices for fuel and other commodities due to weaker domestic currencies and reforms.
“For instance, the removal of fuel subsidies in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria and the resulting social costs has led to social unrest driven by opposition to government policy.”
At a meeting with governors and heads of security agencies last week, President Bola Tinubu charged them to work towards addressing the economic hardship.
”What I will not do is to set a price control board. I will not also approve the importation of food. We should be able to get ourselves out of the situation we found ourselves in, because importation will allow rent seekers to perpetrate fraud and mismanagement at our collective expense. We would rather support farmers with the schemes that will make them go to the farm and grow more food for everyone in the country.
”We must also look at the rapid but thoughtful implementation of our livestock development and management plans, including dairy farming and others,” the President had said.
