Trending news from France is not mind settling as each day passes. France is reeling from rioting; the worst to hit the European Country in years, following nationwide protests over poor education facilities and high cost of living.
Reports monitored on different media channels also indicate protests and clashes with security agents over socio-economic downturn.
Albania, Italy, Portugal and Belgium are in lock-down by waves of youth demonstrations that put their respective governments on the edge.
Considering the foreign policy thrust of the Tinubu administration which seeks a rather open-channel collaboration with European Super-powers for easier loan-obtainments, these disturbing events do elicit discourse on possible back-lash on Nigeria, Currently battling civil tensions induced by energy crisis, mass poverty, appallingly low currency, insecurity and out of school children.
The crisis in France is particularly worrisome in view of president Ahmed Tinubu’s nostalgic attraction for the former African Colonial master. The Nigerian Leader is fond of hibernating in France at the least opportunity. Tinubu’s frequent visits to the serene, alluringly beautiful landscape-Country, are leading diplomatic watchers to see Finance as his second home.
It is therefore, worrisome now that France may become too hot for the Nigerian President to frequently jets to. No thanks to domestic uprisings in both countries that may create a possible wedge between two jolly friends.
Besides a possible rupturing of the nostalgic connection and cozy relationship between presidents Macron and Tinubu, similarities in socio-economic and political upheavals in the two countries are issues that cannot be treated with kid-gloves.
Deadly countrywide violence, driven by agitated youth-population, spilling over to neighboring countries are exerting heavy pressures on security agencies and promoting blame game syndrome among French political leaders and government officials.
Initial assurances of calm returning to Place de-la Republique and Les Hales, as well as cities like Bordeaux are falling flat despite curfew imposition.
Rioting are yet to cease, forcing France Interior Minister to accept government’s incompetency during a session in parliament. Just as mismanagement of public institutions by the Tinubu administration has spiraled into youth protests for poor funding of public school system, dilapidating public health facilities and hyper inflation triggered by flattening Naira devaluation, France is similarly experiencing massive unrests engineered by combined forces of UNEPA a major students’ union and GTA, a powerful labour union.
Another striking resemblance is the timing of both Country’s national elections. While France is conducting its election within six (6) months, Nigeria’s presidential and national Assembly polls are scheduled for January next year.
Both leaders (Macron and Tinubu) are also immersed in the uncertainties and vicissitudes preceding the conduct of national elections in their respective countries.
Macron is faced with setbacks among his country’s major political parties due to his failure to manage the social unrests which have led to the arrests of over two thousand (2,000) people with two (2) dead and many injured.
Macron’s misreading of the school-protest that initially began in the countryside but allowed to fester, has seriously put his security management into question and left him dubbed as a lame duck.
It has been difficult for President Tinubu’s policy advisers and publicists to convince Nigerians to re-elect him for reasons ranging from poor first term performance, failing health, worsening living standards and insecurity. Campaigns have started but on a skewed-shoddy step that has kept many voters from direct interface with a president seeking a fresher mandate.
President Macron’s scheduled visit to Nigeria between 29th October and 6th of November this year to cement a bilateral agreement between two jolly friends has been postponed till early 2027, when Nigerians are expected to go to the polls.
Such a state visit was criticized as untimely. Diplomatic observers believe the shift was face saving for Macron who was compelled to bow to the wisdom of solving domestic crisis instead of diplomatic ground standing.
This writer believes, a similar reading may soon be made of President Tinubu except he designs other means to treat a similar crisis brewing in his own country.
Europe is witnessing possible return of the 1789 French Revolution as civil insurgencies sweep across major cities in Albania, Italy, Portugal and Belgium, driven by soaring energy prices, public sector maintenance cuts, food inflation and economic abandonment of the Youth population commonly dubbed. “The lost generation”.
The Italian city of Milan and Pizza – Duomo are now epicenters of street protests over soaring housing affordability costs where thousands of residents have been forced into the open slums since 2011.
Reports from Lisbon indicate a re-incarnation of the 1989 Tiananmen square occupation which converted large spaces into comp-tents by demonstrators. Either in Brussels or Belgium, the spectacles are the same.
Citizens impoverished by hunger, high costs of living, limited access to education and job losses vent their angst against the authorities on daily basis.
Police teargas and water Canons have failed to push the angry crowds into capitulation as anti-fascist austerity protests escalate in fifty (50) Spanish cities.Social upheavals that eventually led to Revolutions and up-staging of authoritarian rule do not respect the law of distance long or short.
When people are pushed to the wall they strike back and carry Revolutionary messages across nations. It happened with the French Revolution of 1789 whose triple message of freedom, fraternity and equality reverberated across Europe and engendered similar upheavals elsewhere. Interestingly, Italy and England among others are having a repeat of social uprisings two hundred and thirty seven (237) years after the French Revolution.
The tension across Nigeria is too heavy for the Tinubu Administration to dismiss off handedly.
Dealing with crushing poverty, plummeted currency, food inflation, high-energy costs, deteriorating public infrastructure and insecurity are enough signals of an inferno waiting to explode.
Let no Nigerian in the corridors of power be deluded of an asylum elsewhere, because the heat is also being felt in countries traditionally regarded as safe-havens or sanctuaries of comfort. The fire next door is real.
Olusola Ajiboye is a veteran journalist and media consultant based in Osogbo, South West Nigeria.
