LAGOS (SUNDIATA POST)- The All Progressives Congress (APC), Spain chapter, has urged organisers of the proposed nationwide protest to be patient with President Bola Tinubu, rather than plunge Nigeria into anarchy with the planned demonstration.
The Organising Secretary of the chapter, Mr Julius Fayemi, in a statement on Wednesday, urged Nigerian youths to disregard anyone calling for protest in the country.
Fayemi, however, said that no one was disputing right to protest in any democratic society to remind the ruling party that “power corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely”.
“Nigerians should be patient and dialogue, this is not the time to put the state into anarchy.
“If any analyst is telling the ‘Gen Z’ and the Millennium generations to protest peacefully without being hijacked by hoodlums, it is lies from the pit of hell.
“If we review the list of protests in Nigeria in the era of colonial rules to date, can anyone point out and tell the world which protest that ended peacefully,” he said.
He highlighted some protests that had left sour tastes in the mouth to include Aba riot against taxation, imposed by the colonial in 1929, and the Egba Women’s riot in the Palace of Oba Ladapo Ademola ll in 1947.
He also listed “Ali Must Go” riot against Segun Okeowo and Ahmadu Ali because of increments of 50 kobo school fees in 1978, and the protest against Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) organised by National Union of Nigeria Students in 1989.
“We all witnessed the protest in Nigeria against the annulment of the election by the military regime in 1993 and that of the removal of fuel subsidy by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012.
“#EndSars 2020 is still in our memory. If any politician comes on any social media or platforms that youth should protest instead of dialogue, he or she is playing to the gallery.
“In all these protests, there was none that ended without claiming lives and properties.
“When the chips are down, the bourgeois and the privileged will leave the shore of Nigeria for safety.”
According to him, Nigeria must discourage and disregard the jingle of protest and join hands to move the country forward,
The APC chieftain said that Nigeria must cherish its unbroken 25 years of democracy, saying “worst of civilian government is better than the best military.”
“Let’s allow this government to correct the mistakes of their predecessors. After all, hardship did not start today. Allow Mr President to focus and diagnose the problem, and solution is around the corner.
“No government is perfect, one year may not be enough for Tinubu Administration to correct and change Nigeria. We are not ready to repeat #EndSars protest,” he said.
Fayemi, however, urged the government to talk to the youth and not talk at the youth, saying problem facing the country was an accumulated one and not created by Tinubu.
“Democracy is about dialogue. Nobody is saying protest in not part of democracy but it should not be political.
“We know that the demands of the protesters are legitimate but give the current government a time to correct the anomalies.
“Give this regime a time to ameliorate the suffering of the people because the agitation goes beyond the administration,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that there have been so much controversies around some youth groups planning a protest nationwide, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10, to demand government’s solutions to rising cost of living and economic hardship. (NAN)
