Of #EndSARS protests, looting and trust in the Nigerian government
A couple of nights ago, I watched Channels TV news mouth agape as women who would ideally say to their children, ‘you mustn’t steal,’ wilfully looked straight into the TV camera after looting and cursed the government, without the fear of being arrested or labelled thieves. It was a moment of truth! And to those who retorted at Beyoncé that Nigerians are ‘not hungry’ after she issued a statement saying she was ‘collaborating with coalitions to provide emergency healthcare, food and shelter,’ the news reports have burst your bubble; many Nigerians are hungry.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee made a point of the link between hunger and peace with the committee’s selection of the 2020 winner of Nobel Peace Prize. This year’s prize was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) ‘for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.’
As such, whilst those who started the #EndSARS protests might have been middle-class Nigerians and influencers, they were likely joined by some Nigerians who saw the protests as a meal ticket. Men and women who probably do not know what 5x5 stands for but came out every day for a plate of jollof rice. The organised #EndSARS protesters might be off the streets, but some Nigerians say they see the arson, vandalism and looting as a protest against the government, political and middle class. So, whilst #EndSARS might have begun due to angst against police brutality, hunger exacerbated the protests.
But also at the heart of this national crisis is trust. As much as the government tries to respond to allegations regarding the Lekki tollgate incident and the subsequent discovery of COVID-19 palliatives stored in warehouses, the government is not succeeding at explaining the situation away.
This week, the once-beloved former governor of Lagos State, now Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) became the subject of social media memes and skits. Several state governors have come out to explain how the palliatives were received and distributed in their states, but they have been maligned.
However, some Nigerians have said the only believable explanation is that of the Coalition Against COVID-19, CACOVID. According to a statement by the coalition’s spokesperson cited by Nairametrics, ‘The sheer scale of this nationwide food programme and the timing of the orders and deliveries, which coincided with the lockdowns and reduced movement across the country, compelled CACOVID to roll out distribution in a staggered manner.’ The Edelman Trust Barometer for 2020 might point us to why the CACOVID’s response seems to be more acceptable.
The Edelman Trust Barometer is the annual global trust and credibility survey conducted by Edelman Intelligence, the independent research arm of the world’s largest public relations firm, Edelman Global Network. Since 2001, Edelman has measured stakeholder trust in four critical institutions of society namely, government, business, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media. In 2018, Nigeria was included in the survey for the first time. For the three consecutive years that Nigeria has featured in the survey, the reports have shown that the government is the least trusted institution whilst business is the most trusted.
According to the 2020 supplementary data for Nigeria, Nigerians have no confidence in the ability of current leaders to address the country’s challenges successfully. On the contrary, Nigerians’ trust in chief executive officers (CEOs) of businesses as positive change agents. The report also showed that while trust across the four mainstream institutions in the country increased compared to 2019, business still led with 91 per cent, followed by NGOs with 87 per cent. The media was third with 84 per cent while the government only had 55 per cent.
What is also interesting is that the global trust barometer for 2020 showed that in developed and developing countries, high inequality is linked to less trust in government. The 2020 report themed, “Trust: Competence and Ethics” revealed that income inequality now affects trust more than economic growth.
For years public relations practitioners have linked trust and credibility to telling the truth. But research findings are showing a shift or at least suggesting other indicators. As the government calls for ‘reconciliation and rebuilding,’ perhaps it needs to now focus on reducing the inequality gap because amongst the citizenry. Because as Stephen Covey said, ‘what you do has far greater impact than what you say.’
