#Endbadgovernance peters out on Day 6
The nationwide protests launched by more than two dozen groups in the country may have run out of steam as they entered their sixth day today, 6th August.
The Punch cites Channels TV as reporting that there were no protests anywhere in Lagos and Abuja, which became the hotbeds of the protests that witnessed several deaths, including one policeman, and vandalisation of public infrastructure and burglary of individual shops in Kano, Kaduna, among others.
The cessation of the protests has been attributed to the crackdown by security agents who, apparently almost overwhelmed by the crowds, resorted to firing teargas canisters and live bullets at the protesters.
The demonstrators were demanding for the restoration of fuel and electricity subsidies removed by the Bola Tinubu government, as well reduction of the cost of governance, among others, none of which the government has acceded to.
President Tinubu’s last Sunday’s address to the nation reeling out his achievements and calling for withdrawal of the protesters from the streets to give room for dialogue, was dismissed by the protesters as falling short of their expectations, for which reason they vowed to continue with the demonstrations until their demands were met.
Opposition figures like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and ex-Anambra State governor of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, among others, dismissed Tinubu’s address as displaying his disconnect from the people.
A novel feature of the protest was the display of Russian national flag by protesters in Kaduna and other States in the North, a development the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, said amounted to treasonable felony, and would not be countenanced. The tailor who was mass producing the flag is said to have been taken into custody by security agents.
The police said they made arrests even as one of the leaders of the protests, Lenin, was also picked up by operatives of the State Security Services (SSS).
It is left to be seen whether the situation in the early hours of today marks the end of the protests, and whether government would yield grounds for any dialogue with protesters in the days ahead.
