President Tinubu’s self-serving speech–which basically sang his own praises, said he’d heard the people’s anguished cries but won’t do anything about the cries and then threatened that the people shouldn’t cry for much longer or they’d be crushed– signposts the making of an unfeeling tyrant.

If the people close to him don’t stop him and the masses of the people let him get away with it, he’ll transmogrify into a terrifyingly ruthless monster that may end Nigeria as we know it.

A famous Arabic proverb goes: “They asked the Pharoah, ‘What made you a tyrant?’ He said, ‘No one stopped me.'”

The proverb tells us about the psychology of power that I’ve written about in past columns. Subordinates flatter people in power, copy their ways, and shield them from the harsh truth about them. This sycophantic drooling by subordinates makes leaders lose touch with reality.

The truth Tinubu must know is that the current hardship in Nigeria is not survivable. This is not an issue of political partisanship.

There’s no alternative to restoring petrol and electricity subsidies. Energy security is national security.

He should give another speech to restore the subsidies whose removal created the conditions that power the protests. Simple.