- It Failed To Address Killings Of Protesters, Their Demands- Soyinka, Falana, Atiku, Others
- End Protests Now, Poor Nigerians Can’t Endure It More- Peterside Tells Protesters
- Despite Tinubu’s Address, Protests Continue Today, Says Sowore
Rather than the intended motive of the speech by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu aimed at dissuading and appealing to the angry and hungry protesters to sheathe their sword and end the ongoing #EndBadGovernance nationwide protesta, the reverse is the case as more Nigerians have criticized the speech by the president.
Instead, the address seems to have fueled the anger of more Nigerians as the hashtag #Lockdown is trending on X as anger, condemnation and outrage have continued to trail the speech.
Perhaps the most surprising of the criticism trailing the address is that from an trusted ally and friend of the president, Prof Wole Soyinka who lampooned the president’s national broadcast on Sunday for not addressing what he described as the violent crackdown on #EndBadGovernance protesters by security agencies in the country.
Soyinka who raised the observation in a statement on Sunday, expressed his concern over Tinubu‘s deliberate omission of the police brutality which he said the President should have addressed.
“I set my alarm clock for this morning to ensure that I did not miss President Bola Tinubu’s impatiently awaited address to the nation on the current unrest across the nation,” Soyinka said.
READ ALSO: Full Text Of President Tinubu’s #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Address
“His outline of government’s remedial action since inception, aimed at warding off just such an outbreak, will undoubtedly receive expert and sustained attention both for effectiveness and in content analysis.
“My primary concern, quite predictably, is the continuing deterioration of the state’s seizure of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell conspicuously short.
“Such short-changing of civic deserving, regrettably, goes to arm the security forces in the exercise of impunity and condemns the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.
“Live bullets as state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest. Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S, not peculiar to the Nigerian nation. They belong indeed in a class of their own, never mind the collateral claims emblazoned on posters.
“They serve as summons to governance that a breaking point has been reached and thus, a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, and for which notice was served, constitutes a retrogression that takes the nation even further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests.
“It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that induced the late stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government.
“The nation’s security agencies cannot pretend unawareness of alternative models for emulation, civilized advances in security intervention.
READ ALSO: Soyinka Condemns Tinubu’s Speech For Failing To Address Police Brutality Against Protesters
“Need we recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of what is generally known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curriculum.
“In all of the coverage that I watched, I did not catch one single instance of a gun leveled at protesters, much less fired at them even during direct physical confrontations.
“The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.
“The time is long overdue, surely, to abandon, permanently, the anachronistic resort to lethal means by the security agencies of governance. No nation is so under-developed, materially impoverished, or simply internally insecure as to lack the will to set an example.
“All it takes is to recall its own history, then exercise the will to commence a lasting transformation, inserting a break in the chain of lethal responses against civic society.
“Today’s marchers may wish to consider adopting the key songs of Hubert Ogunde’s BREAD AND BULLETS, if only to inculcate a sense of shame in the continuing failure to transcend the lure of colonial inheritance where we all were at the receiving end. One way or the other, this vicious cycle must be broken.
Similarly, Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has called on the President to address the demands of the peaceful protesters.
In a statement on Sunday, Falana says the presidential speech delivered this morning falls short of addressing the key demand of the protesters: reversal of the policy of withdrawal of fuel subsidy.
“If the government takes the fight against corruption to oil dealers and crude oil is processed in government-owned refineries, there will be no basis for fuel subsidy, which is induced by the importation of petroleum products. A positive response to the key demands of the youths to review the protesters could make them review their actions. Insensitivity to their demands can only provoke continued action,” he said.
On his part, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has slammed President Tinubu’s broadcast to the nation on Sunday morning, describing it as a hollow speech devoid of solutions to the hardships facing Nigerians.
Speaking through his media adviser, Paul Ibe, in a statement in Abuja, Atiku said the broadcast, intended to quell the fervour of public protests against his administration’s poor governance, utterly missed the mark.
He said: “His (Tinubu’s) speech neglects the pressing economic hardships that have besieged Nigerian families since the very beginning of his tenure.
“This address lacks credibility and fails to offer any immediate, tangible solutions to the Nigerian people.
“Given the extensive publicity surrounding the protests and the threats issued by government officials against demonstrators, one would have expected President Tinubu to present groundbreaking reforms, particularly those aimed at reducing the exorbitant costs of governance.
“But alas, no such announcements were made. The President ignored the protesters’ demands, such as suspending the purchase of aircraft for the President, downsizing his bloated cabinet, or even eliminating the costly and burdensome office of the First Lady, who has been indulging in extravagant trips at the nation’s expense.
“In his lacklustre recorded speech, President Tinubu offered a superficial account of his so-called reforms, revealing his own tenuous grasp of policy as he failed to convince his audience.
“While the President has spoken, it is unfortunate that his words lack substance and respect for the protesters’ sentiments, leaving Nigerians with little faith in his reform agenda—if one exists at all.”He challenged the president and his team to own up to their failures over the past 14 months and abandon the absurd theory that the protests are orchestrated by the opposition.
Meanwhile, Atedo Peterside, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank and Anap Foundation, has appealed to youths to suspend the #EndBadGovernance protest today.
In a statement on Sunday, Peterside said poor Nigerians cannot “endure protests for more than a few days”.
He added that the protesters have made their point and that their “massive turnout has frightened many people”.
“You have shaken Nigeria to the core and dispelled the falsehood that many of our youths are not politically active and/or do not care to demand good governance,” Peterside wrote on X.
“I beg you in the name of God to please call off the protest now. In the aftermath of #EndSars, I explained that any mass street action that goes on for more than a few days will be infiltrated and overtaken by hoodlums.
“Please end the protests today (Sunday). Poor Nigerians cannot endure protests for more than a few days. You have made your point. Your massive turnout has frightened many people. FG is not deaf.
“The President has spoken this morning. Perhaps even the Legislators have heard you also.
“If they collectively fail to significantly reduce the cost of governance, stop wasteful expenditures and tighten their own belts or lead by example, please then re-strategise, regroup and call them to order again.”
The appeal however seems to have fallen on deaf ears as Rights activist Omoyele Sowore has declared that the #EndBadGovernance protest will continue on Monday.
Despite the violence that has marred the exercise and subsequent appeals from the president and other stakeholders to end the protest, Sowore has directed protesters to march to Ojota before proceeding to Alausa, the Lagos State Secretariat, on Monday.
Posting on X, Sowore wrote: “Please be aware that the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria action will resume fully tomorrow across Nigeria and in several parts of Lagos-Lekki Toll Gate, Alausa Secretariat, former Lagos Toll Gate, Ketu, LASU Gate, Abule Egba, FESTAC Town, and several other centres.
“However, all groups are advised to march towards Ojota before processions to the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa.”
