As hardship bites harder, some Nigerian youths are reportedly planning nationwide protests beginning from August 1-10, 2024.
The protest, which is currently gaining traction in the
North and other parts of the country, is aimed at drawing the attention of
governments at all levels to the plight of the citizens.
Since the current administration took off in May 2023 when
President Bola Tinubu announced the abolition of fuel subsidy, there has been
an untoward hardship in the country.
This has led to calls for the reversal of some policies of the government believed to have birthed the hardship.
Recall that angry youths and women had on February 9, 2024,
taken to the streets of Minna, the Niger State capital, and Kano to protest the
astronomical rise in prices of food and other essential commodities in the
market.
In a similar vein, some civil society groups, including the
Take It Back Movement, the Education Rights Campaign, the Coalition for
Revolution and the Socialist Workers League on June 12, protested against the
surging cost of living, insecurity and other challenges facing the nation.
The protesters, who stormed the streets in some Southwestern
states, wielded placards that had inscriptions like: ‘President Tinubu, let the
poor breathe’, ‘Payment of living wage to all Nigerian workers now, ‘End
Insecurity,’ ‘Nationalise the power sector,’ and ‘Reverse Fee Hikes Now,” among
others.
The planned August protest
The protest is scheduled to take place in the 36 states and
the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
While some of the organizers, particularly from the northern
region, remain anonymous, the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action
Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore has been campaigning for the August protest via
his social media handles.
Sowore, who had led several protests in the country, said
revolution would start in August, insisting that “Nothing Can Stop An Idea
Whose Time Has Come” #RevolutionNOW.”
Sowore wrote: “The REVOLUTION is now knocking on our doors!
#RevolutionNow. Let everyone rise all once in August 2024!
“Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. They asked
for a revolution and It is here now! @officialABAT once asked for a revolution,
even @MBuhari once asked for a revolution and Nigerians now want a real
revolution.
“Nothing Can Stop An Idea Whose Time Has Come”
#RevolutionNOW.”
Similarly, a flyer making the rounds on social media titled:
“End Bad Government in Nigeria 2024” by anonymous groups, ascribed the planned
protest to 10 policies of the government, which according to them have imposed
unexpected hardship on Nigerians.
Among other demands, the group urged the government to “end
subsidy scam and reverse fuel price to below N300 per litter, bring tertiary
education fees back to their previous rates, restore electricity tariff to
affordable levels for the public, return import duties to their previous rates,
publicly disclose and reduce the salaries and allowances of all Senators, House
of Representative members, reform EFCC.”
Police moves to halt protest in leaked memo
The Nigeria Police Force is allegedly initiating plans to
halt the planned protest.
The police, in an internal memo sighted by our correspondent,
said “Some groups are mobilizing for mass protest nationwide beginning from 1
to 10 2024”.
The memo, dated July 8 and copied to zonal Assistant
Inspectors-General of Police, urged the operatives to be proactive and
“mobilize well kitted and equipped personnel” ahead of the protest.
“INGENPOL directs you to be proactive, mobilize well kitted
and equipped personnel, synergize with other sister agencies and the military,
takeover all strategic points in your AOR, deploy undercover for intelligent
gathering, disperse unlawful gatherings, be in heart-to-heart conversation with
community stakeholders, no form of protest must be allowed during the period,”
it said.
A popular social commentator and investigative journalist,
@PIDOMNIGERIA posted the leaked memo on his verified X handle.
Efforts to reach the Force Public Relations Officer,
Olumuyiwa Adejobi over the matter was unsuccessful as he could not take his
call and failed to respond to all text messages sent to his phone.
Fear grips government officials
The planned nationwide protest has instilled fear on
Nigerian public officer holders, especially lawmakers who are fidgeting over
possible attack on them.
Recall that the Nigerian Senate on Tuesday engaged in a
panic debate, expressing fear of attacks by angry Nigerians who are bedeviled
by the prevailing hardship.
The lawmakers expressed fear that the angry Nigerians may
resort to attack and revolt against public office holders.
The debate followed a motion, titled: “Urgent Need to
address Food Insecurity and Market Exploitation of Consumables in Nigeria”,
sponsored by Senator Sunday Karimi Steve representing Kogi West Senatorial
District and co-sponsored by Senator Ali Ndume Mohammed representing Borno South
Senatorial District.
Former Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, after commending the
mover of the motion submitted that Nigerians have exhausted their patience and
may come after them if nothing was done in quick time due to acute hunger.
“If we don’t take immediate action, we will lose the power
and our citizens under the situation of increased fuel price, increased
electricity price, increased everything and we are yet to get the right
measures to provide questions for our constituents.
“We wouldn’t like the kind of thing that we see in our
streets and it is time that we take every possible action to get out of the
arms of the government to ensure that food floods our country, the right food”,
he said.
A few days earlier, former lawmaker Shehu Sani had warned
the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio not to pass a route in Wuse 2, in
the FCT over protesting Nigerians.
Sani said he recently encountered protesters in Wuse 2,
carrying placards against ‘hunger in the land’.
The former lawmaker said some of the protesters among them
recognized him and allowed him to pass.
However, Sani suggested in the post that Akpabio might not
be given a free pass by the protesters. He, therefore, advised the Senate
President not to go through Wuse 2.
He wrote: “I just passed a group of protesters in Wuse 2,
carrying placards against ‘hunger in the land’. Some ladies among them
recognized me and shouted “No be that Afro Senator be that”, I answered “yes na
me the former Senator”; then they responded “Oya pass”. Make Akpabio no pass
there o.
Meanwhile, a chieftain of the Labour Party, Mr Kayode
Oyeniran disclosed in Abuja that “if the protest is allowed to hold, government
officials may have to find where they will hide themselves.
“The truth is that Nigerians are angry. For the past few
months now, there has been debates on the salaries and allowances of the
Federal lawmakers.
“I don’t know how much they earn but the way it is painted
in public, many Nigerians now see them as their number one enemies.
“It is my prayer that the organizers find other means of
expressing their grievances. It must not always be a protest. You see what is
happening in Kenya?
“Both the government and the protesters are having a bad
time. Protests most times make things worse”, he said.
Oneyiran, however, stated that “sometimes you can’t blame
these people. They have had enough and have been patient enough.
“Since 2023, the government has only been making promises.
The Port Harcourt refinery that they said would work last year December, I
don’t think it is functioning now.
“They said when the CNG vehicles are rolled out, prices of
goods will crash, where are the vehicles? How long would Nigerians wait? People
are suffering.
“People have come to a level where they are no longer afraid
of anything. If you stay back, you may die of hunger and if you protest you may
die, so they will tell you that it is better to protest and die. We have never
had it like this”.
Meanwhile, in his own opinion, the President General of the
Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem urged Nigerian
youths to jettison the planned protest and channel their energy to something
useful.
In a chat on Saturday, Ibem said, “Nigerian youths should
redirect the energy they want to use for protest into farming and full time
agriculture.
“That is the major way to end hunger and food scarcity.
“Many of our farmlands are not cultivated even when we have
so many youths. They only want white collar jobs, which are not available.
“We have to remain positive here. Hunger cannot disappear if
we fail to embrace farming as a culture and lifestyle. That is the bitter
truth”.
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