The political atmosphere in the country in the past few days, or weeks was charged, following the planned peaceful hardship protest which was to begin on the 1st of August, 2024. The organisers of the protest bemoaned the living conditions in Nigeria and vowed that the only thing that would stop angry Nigerians from taking to the street, is on the condition that the following issues are urgently addressed by government; Return of fuel subsidy, reversal of high electricity tariffs, allow diaspora voting, scrap the1999 constitution, disband the senate, make law-making part-time business, and payment of #250,000, among other demands.
Given what became of #EndSARS protest in 2020, government has continued to devise various means to ensure that the protest does not take place. The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration prior to this time, consulted widely range of stakeholders, including religious leaders, traditional rulers, governors, and security agencies to discourage citizens from participating in the nationwide protests driven by economic hardship and soaring food prices. The government has also engaged prominent individuals to dissuade the youths in particular, not to participate in the protest. For example, the daughter of the president and the Iyaloja General of Lagos state, advised market women to warn their children from taking part in the street march.
She urged parents to talk to their children and families to desist from taking part in the protest in Lagos State. She insisted that the nationwide protest is a ploy to destroy the country. Ironically, the incumbent president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan led a group of Nigerians to protest against Jonathan administration’s attempt to remove the oil subsidy. The question is, why is the current president afraid of peaceful protest? The president has admitted that people have the right to peaceful protest. In the last one year, the living condition in Nigeria has become hellish. People cannot feed and buy the basic things of life, yet the government and its propaganda machinery claimed the administration is doing something to ameliorate the sufferings of the citizens.
Some say, one year is early in the day to judge the Tinubu administration and appealed for patience. Others argue; if it took just one day, the day of his inauguration to remove fuel subsidy; why is it taking him more than one year to address the issue of hunger and lack in the country? As a democratic nation, protest is allowed under the law. It’s a channel sometimes the people use to ventilate their opinions and perceptions of how things are working in a country. We have come to realise that over the years, those who surround the president often times do not represent the people, but their own selfish interest, unfortunately.
Those who tried to put fear into the people, asking them not to embark on the peaceful protest are really true enemies of the society. If the government has nothing to hide, why did it decide to suffocate the airwaves with peaceful protest matters? Nigeria has been on this protracted political shenanigan for too long. The people’s complaints, to say the least, are genuine and should not be reduced to mere propaganda. The handlers of the president, for the interest of everyone, should play according to the rule of the game. We heard that the planners of the peaceful protest were faceless before now, but some people came to own up that they were behind the nationwide protest.
Letters written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), asking for permission to pass through some identified areas by the protesters equally surfaced on television, even though some of them denied it. If our society is built on law and order, the government should come clean on issues of peaceful protest. The planned protest should not be motivated by selfish ends, but rather a genuine concern over the deplorable situation of things in the country as expressed by many Nigerians, and only for the public interest. We do not support violent protest or any move that would undermine public interest and the good of the nation.
We therefore, call on the Inspector General of Police and his men to manage the situation very well, to forestall breakdown of law and order by those who may have been paid to infiltrate the peaceful protest. Stopping Nigerians from participating in a peaceful protest which the law recognises, is an aberration to the tenets of democracy and the law guiding its letters and spirits. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should recognise this fact, and as a democrat should listen to the voice of the people, especially this time hunger appears to be the major driver of the protest.
