By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – A coalition of civil society, pressure, ethnic, special interest groups and students’ unions of various universities in the North central zone, have raised the alarm that hoodlums are planning to hijack the proposed planned national strike slated for August 1, 2024.
The coalition said rather than allow a well intended protest to slide into the hands of terrorists who want to topple the government, they will rather advise that the protest be shelved while the present administration is given enough time to address the hunger in the land.
has vowed to stage the mother of all protests if the Federal Government failed to honour its pledges after Nigerians heeded the pleas to shelve the proposed national protest against hardship in the country.
Addressing newsmen in Jos on Tuesday, the Convener, Comrade Prince Miaphen, said if however, government did not address the prevailing hunger challenges in the country, after its group had pulled out of the protest, they would reorganize and staged a mother of all protest.
“This coalition viewed the present call for protest as a grand design for the enthronement of anarchy and national instability”, he said.
According to him: “Though unpopular, but rightly and courageously however, President Bola Tinubu embarked on the most daring economic reforms, taking in his strides, two most critical and avoided economic regimes – petroleum subsidy and foreign exchange fixing.
“Among other reforms, these are still the most debated in the country, and opinions continue to differ and widen on them.
“But one sure fact about these reforms is that while former regimes appear to give citizens a false sense of wellness, it stagnated the economy, and many cartels fed fat on national resources as a result of that.
“These cartels have not relented in sponsoring very dangerous narratives and inciting citizens against the government. And citizens react according to the obvious economic hardship occasioned by the reforms. We dare say that nobody can blame those who are impatient with the government, after all, social contradictions and misery suffered by citizens are evident before us.
“Government on its part has also behaved like some spoiled kids, mouthing their concerns without engaging critical stakeholders and deliberately demonstrating their own sacrifice in the face of these challenges.
“When we are told to tighten our belts, we often see the belts of the preachers totally unbuckled. There is also the issue of the absence of clear information, misinformation or disinformation.
“Consequently, a combination of many factors that border on frustration, discontent and even euphoria; and also, political and economic interests, treasonable intents and outright desire for anarchy have conflagrated into the proposed “End Bad Government Protests.
“Let us also note that since the incident in Kenya, which has its own peculiarity and influences, the voices of opposition, bitter and disgruntled politicians and other unpatriotic interests have been on the campaign of employing sensationalism and exploiting the outcomes of the initial challenges of the visionary and bold reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to instigate Nigerians, particularly the young ones into unrest because of hardship.
“That euphoria that protests will become a magic wand with which things will be turned around is the political opium carefully being administered by the promoters of these protests,who by the way are some unknown anarchists. They will never tell those they intend to deceive that these protests which must end in chaos because it has no control will birth severer hardship on the citizens. No one must be deceived.
“We love protest, but not one that doesn’t represent us as a people.
“We don’t want issues that will lead us to the dark days, we don’t want issues that will make us go to bed by 6 pm through the imposition of curfew. Plateau has gone through a lot and now that we’re ensuring relative peace, we are afraid not to go back to the dark ages
“Let us be clear. The original flyer, picked on the Internet for these protests, is titled: “END BAD GOVERNMENT”, and not “END BAD GOVERNANCE” as it has now been rechristened. It is a clear subterfuge for the use of mass riots to illegally remove a constitutionally established government. It is a treasonable proposal and to actually proceed is treason.”
