• Security agents warn against violence •Planners rebuff appeals to stay action •Govt Security agents on high alert, take over Eagles Square Abuja
46 months after the bloody #EndSARS protests of October 2020, Nigeria, baring any unexpected change, seems set to witness another round of nationwide protests, starting from today.
With the hashtag, #EndBadGovernance, the protests are scheduled for August 1 – 10, 2024.
The organisers, who had about a fortnight ago given notice of the protests, at different times said that they would be protesting against high cost of living amid official indifference and selfishness.
Insisting that the protests will hold regardless of what the federal government says, one of the promoters of the protests, Mr Sowore Omoyele, a popular activist and politician, said in a trending video on YouTube, that his Revolution Now group would be protesting hunger in the country.
He said even though scores of groups have signed up for the protests, he could only speak for himself, stressing that “Nigerians are sick and tired of policies that have impoverished them.”
On the brains behind the planned protests, the proprietor of Sahara Reporters online newspaper, said that “philosophically”, the real organisers of the protests are hunger, corruption, insecurity lack of opportunities for young people”, among others.
He said that those preparing for the protests in 20 states have written to the Commissioners of Police in those states requesting for security cover for the protesters.
According to media reports, one of the lawyers for the ‘Take It Back Movement’, one of the groups organising the nationwide protests, Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, has written to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, asking for police protection for the would-be demonstrators, assuring that the protests would be peaceful.
However, some other groups, including those from Igboland and Yorubaland, have distanced themselves from the planned protests, even as some government officials like Minister of the Federal Capital City, FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike, have warned protesters to stay off Abuja.
Groups in Lagos have warned non-indigenes to stay off the streets of Lagos, a development that has given the planned protests an ethnic colouration.
In a statewide broadcast to Lagosians, yesterday, Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu faulted the planned protests arguing that ten days’ protests cannot solve the problems highlighted by the protest planners as being their reasons to take to the streets.
Sanwo-Olu said efforts have, and are being made by both the federal and Lagos State governments, to alleviate the economic pains of the citizens, calling on them to exercise patience.
The Lagos State governor said further that protests could spiral out of control and further harm the economy and cost lives as were witnessed during the 2020 #EndSars protests.
He announced, however, that the “police have assured us” that they guarantee security if protesters confine their activities to Gani Fawehinmi Park and the Peace Park. He, therefore, approved the use of the two locations for the protests.
The governor obviously acted in line with the ruling of a Lagos High Court presided over by Justice Emmanuel Ogundare, delivered two days prior, restricting persons in Lagos taking part in the planned protest, to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park in Ojota, and Peace Park, Ketu area of the state.
The judge gave the restriction order 30 July 2024, following an exparte application filed the state Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Mr Lawal Pedro, seeking to maintain and secure public safety and prevent irreparable loss of lives and property in the state during the period of the protests.
Meanwhile, some elders and stakeholders in Northern Nigeria have thrown their full support behind the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests.
In a statement signed by Prof. Usman Yusuf, Hajia Najatu Muhammad, Mallam Salihu Lukman, and Dr. Umar Ardo, the elders decried the worsening economic situation in the country and called on the Tinubu administration to take urgent steps to address them.
A week prior, the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) had called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to, among others, adopt the draft Constitution of the 2014 National Conference to address the troubles of the country that were partly fueling the calls for nationwide protests.
In a statement on the state of the nation entitled, “In the Multitude of Counsellors, there is Safety,” signed by the Chairman, Dr Samuel Danjuma Gani, the NCEF said, “Recently, a faceless group in the country is calling people to a nationwide protest from August 1 to 10, 2024.
“While the group rightly lists several demands that would enhance good governance, the protest itself should be viewed with seriousness. For one, the unknown organisers wish to replicate the protest that took place recently in Kenya.
“However, the situation in Kenya is different from that in Nigeria. There are too many aggrieved groups in Nigeria for anyone to toy with the idea of a national protest.
“Either the country would implode or the protesters would be massacred by overly enthusiastic security forces…
“Under the circumstances, we advocate that the government must change its approach to governance and restore hope and confidence in the people.”
In Akwa Ibom State, Governor Umo Eno met with some youth and purported rights activities and pleaded with them not to take to the streets in protest.
A government media outlet claimed in a release that the youths, numbering less than one per cent of the youths in thr state, had assured the governor that they would not protest since they are happy with him.
Government agents and officials have been frantic over the planned protests and have mobilised opinion, community and religious leaders to talk the protest planners out of their plans.
While some of them have resorted to whipping up regional and ethnic sentiments, others have resorted to issuing of threats, blackmail and curious denial of any problems that should warrant protests.
The police, military, and the Department of State Services, as well as politicians, the prime suspects fingered tobbe responsible for the country’s numerous woes, have warned against Kenya-styled protests fearing they may end up like the EndSARS demonstrations of October 2020.
WatchmanPost this morning sighted a release purportedly issued by one of the groups organising the protests, Take It Back Movement, claiming that they have called the protests off.
Entitled, “Notice of Postponement of Planned Protest”, the undated statement said, “Due to prevailing security threat conditions, we, the organizers of the #EndBadGovernance and hunger protests can no longer guarantee the security of lives of Nigerians who will come out tomorrow.”
Signed by one Damilare Adenola, Director Mobilization.
the statement said that the protest has been postponed to October 1. This medium could not ascertain the authenticity of the credibility of the release.
