Nationwide protest: Listen to millions of suffering, angry Nigerians, NLC tells Tinubu

Cosmas Chukwu, Enugu and AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

 

As the date for the widely reported national protest looms, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to invite the leadership of the protest movement for discussions on their grievances.

 

It said millions of Nigerians are angry about the state of the national economy, stating that a situation where most Nigerian families are forced to eat one miserable meal a day and eating from the dustbin is now seen as luxury beckons for serious intervention by government.

 

The congress in a statement signed by its president, Joe Ajaero noted that, “Corroborating a recent country living standards index assessment by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which established that about 133 million Nigerians live below extreme poverty lines, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) posits that in the first three quarters of 2024, about 32 million Nigerians have been exposed to acute hunger.

 

“When this statistics is added to the millions that are being recruited into the armies of the unemployed and under-employed Nigerians, one can easily situate the hardship, pain, frustrations and despair that many Nigerians are going through right now.

 

“The truth is that Nigerians have been hard pushed and super pressed right against the walls of deep deprivation and acute want.

It is, therefore, condescending and dismissive to describe the daily brutish ordeal that Nigerians are going through as a sponsored political dissent.

 

“Even if it is so, it is still within the confines of citizens’ rights to protest on political grounds. Just that the current unease in the country does not need political motivation to spark and splurge”.

 

The statement stated that: “All that the hurting citizens demand from their government is a listening ear and an empathetic heart. Maybe, that is what the organisers of the protest are looking for given their continued notices on different social media platforms.

 

“It is very difficult to tell a Nigerian who has lost his or her job due to the current economic downturn to maintain their cool. It is very tough to advise a nursing mother who is unsure where the next meal for her suckling child to be at ease.

 

“It is a herculean task to demand patience from a youth who has been out of school for the past six years without a job and is burdened with aged parents to cater for.

 

“During this very difficult times, the right of Nigerians to complain must be fully respected. The Organised Labour movement led by the Nigeria Labour Congress has had cause in recent times to protest against the crushing suffering in the land brought about by the harsh economic policies of government including the astronomical hike in the price of refined petroleum products, the increase in the cost of electricity cum the unavailability of the same, the unconscientious raise and duplication of user access charges to most public utilities including hospital treatment, water, waste disposal and general spike in the cost of living.

 

“It is the well-considered position of the Congress that bellicosity and hostility towards the protesters and other aggrieved Nigerians do not offer any tangible remedy either to the pain endured by the populace or the frustrations of having so little in a country where a few privileged persons are living in obscene luxury especially at the expense of the majority. These are dire times. Nigerians are angry.

 

“The times require government to “jaw jaw” and not “war war” with Nigerians. The truth is that you cannot smack a child and at the same time ask the child not to cry. A stitch in time might still save nine! “.

 

However, President Bola Tinubu has urged the youth not to carry out their planned protests against the Federal Government’s economic reforms.

 

Tinubu made the call in Abuja on Monday at a meeting of the National Council of Traditional Rulers, where he was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume.

 

“Capitalising on the economic hardship in the country, some men and women with sinister motives have been reported to have been mobolising citizens, particularly youths, to stage a protest,’’ he said.

 

According to him, what is required of Nigerians in this critical period of economic reform is patience and commitment to the success of the reforms.

 

He urged Nigerians to learn from past experiences where crises and violence threatened the nation’s diversity and peace.

 

 

 

“Let’s learn from India and Sudan’s experiences. We are a country with more than 200 million people.

 

“Therefore, we can’t afford to have this kind of situation,’’ he said.

 

 

 

He said the present administration had put in place policies and programmes to ameliorate the economic hardship being experienced by Nigerians.

 

“We have procured Compressed Natural Gas vehicles, introduced students’ loan  scheme, distributed palliatives, procured tractors, fertiliser, and other agric inputs,’’ he said.

 

He affirmed that the Federal Government is making concerted efforts to combat insecurity in the country.

 

“As a custodian of our culture, I would like you to carry the message of peace the young people and parents in your domains,’’ Tinubu said.

 

In his speech, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’adu Abubakar III, identified dialogue as the best option in resolving any conflict.

 

“What dialogue can’t resolve, no amount of violence can resolve. There must be peace.

 

Also speaking, the Ooni of Ife,  Dr Adeyeye Enitan, pointed to patriotism among citizens  as the  key driver toward national development.

 

“Patriotism is synonymous to national cohesion. Any attempt to destroy national cohesion, therefore, must be resisted,’’ he said.

 

According to him, Tinubu has been working hard to put the county in a proper shape in spite of the challenges.

 

“Nigeria does not belong to any section of the country; it belongs to all of us,’’ he said.

 

In his address, the Chairman, Code of Conduct Tribunal, Dr Mainasara Umar-Kogo described traditional institutions as the most effective local administration since the pre-colonial era.

 

He said some administrative reforms in the country had relegated their roles and subjected them to ineffective political values.

 

“We need their roles restored in our constitution so that we can preserve our socio-cultural values.

 

.Ohanaeze warns Ndigbo not to join

.Says youths risk arrest, assault, detention, killing

.’Onanuga’s anti-Igbo comments unthoughtful, full of deep-seated hate’

 

Meanwhile, National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr Chiedozie Alex has  alerted the world that Ohanaeze’s attention has been drawn to a remark by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga to the effect that “the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi, the failed presidential candidate of the Labour Party. And that Obi “should be held responsible for whatever crisis emanates from the protest.” And that the Obidients are “plotting to unseat President Bola Tinubu under the guise of protests”. Several gullible undiscerning persons have joined Onanuga to state specifically that “the Igbo are the propellers of the forthcoming nationwide protest.

 

Ohanaeze views the above remarks by Onanuga as true to type. On March 19, 2023 Onanuga was reported by several news media to have issued a serious warning to the Igbo stating, “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027”. When many well-meaning Nigerians including Mr. Festus Keyamo cautioned Onanuga on the ignoble path he has chosen for himself, he was quoted to have stated:  “I owe no one apology for ethnic slur against Igbos”

 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo views Onanuga’s bizarre dispositions towards anything Igbo as unthoughtful, loathsome, cantankerous, uncouth, repugnant, inflammable, repugnant and full of deep-seated hate.

 

It may be necessary to inform Onanuga that Nigerians of all persuasions, North, South, East and West are in pains of diverse forms: excruciating hardships, poverty, Naira downward spiral, incessant kidnappings, banditry, farmers-herdsmen conflict, most terrifying insecurity, joblessness, rising food prices and cost of living challenges. And that the prevailing hardship in Nigeria is blind to ethnicity.

 

It is necessary to inform Onanuga that this is a time for the Presidency to initiate policies, programmes, activities and a body language that will appeal to or assuage the downtrodden, dispossessed, oppressed, the deprived, including Obidients.

 

And to also inform the Onanugas that issuing threats to masses, the hungry and angry, the vulnerable and indeed those who no longer fear any fall is the most inconceivable line of action for any government in a fragile society. In other words, instead of broadening the minds to creative thinking and welfare programs for the masses, the Onanugas are chasing rat when the house is on fire.

 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo also seizes this opportunity to reiterate our position with respect to the widely publicized nationwide protest scheduled for the days of August, 2024. On February,20, 2024, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Chief Engr. Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, MFR; OFR; CFR; FNICE; FNSE; FNIST; KSG (Ahaejiagamba Ndigbo) directed the Igbo not to join in the protest against President Bola Tinubu. The Igbo Leader explained that “Igbo youths and youths from other ethnic groups at various times expressed their dissatisfaction with events in the country. It is clear to us that when youths from other tribes of the country are involved, they are reprimanded and forgiven; but when the Igbo youths are involved they are arrested, incarcerated and even charged for serious offences. For example, the arrest and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu generated a lot of problems for the Igbos” amongst others.

 

Emphatically, the current hardship in Nigeria is the comeuppance of Igbophobia. It is an unavoidable outcome of an orchestrated injustice, marginalization, callous conspiracies, corporate shenanigans and ethnic bigotry against the Igbo.

 

Ohanaeze Ndigbo stands on a firm wicket based on reason, history and experience, to state that there can never be peace, progress and national development when there is a deliberate government policy of injustice, tantrums and brimstones against a vibrant, capacious, resourceful, resilient and populous ethnic group such as the Igbo.

 

On Saturday, March 25, 2023, during the occasion of one year in Office of Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the Governor of Anambra State, the former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo condemned the persistent aversion to the people of southeastern extraction, which he described as Igbophobia. Obasanjo added that unless Nigeria throws its doors open to merit, competence and full inclusion of the Igbo in national affairs, the country will continue to flounder and grope in the dark.

Finally, the Igbo are once again requested not to join the forthcoming nationwide protest.

When President Muhammadu Buhari appointed about 15 service chiefs in Nigeria and Igbo was excluded, did the lopsided policy abate the insecurity in Nigeria?  And have we died? And many more…? It was Robert Schuller who posited that “Tough times never last but tough people do”.

 

Don’t protest in FCT, CP urges residents

 

 

The FCT Commissioner of Police, Bennett Igweh, has called on residents and indigenes not to partake in the nationwide protest.

 

Some groups and citizens had scheduled a nationwide protest for August 1 in response to the economic hardship in the country.

 

However, the FCT CP, while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Monday, urged residents to shun the protest.

He stated that the police have made significant efforts to ensure security in the FCT, adding that the protest could jeopardise it.

 

Igweh said, “I want to appeal specifically to the residents and indigenes and everybody in the FCT. Please, lions do not destroy their dens. You cannot see a lion who destroys its den. No, I would not like you to join this protest. I plead with you because we have worked hard to ensure your safety.

 

“We have fought those people outside Abuja. We have been to Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Niger to fight criminals so that you can be safe. I have lost men. Last week alone in Gidango, I lost two policemen. The other day, I lost two more. Let our loss pay for the protest. I want to plead with you.

 

“We don’t need you to be in the streets before somebody will say they are trying the police’s might. Or you will say, you will do this, you will do that. Please, please, don’t destroy where you are living.”

 

Igweh added that the government was doing its best by providing good roads.

 

 

“If you check, the government has provided good roads. Whether it’s from the minister of FCT or the president, check the streets in FCT, from Wuse to anywhere you can check, even in the hinterlands.

 

“They are trying their best. I don’t need to talk to anybody, but I’m saying it because we have been in the FCT. We know when there are changes. There are changes now in the FCT.

 

“And we don’t want miscreants outside the FCT to come and start destroying them. We will go back to square one where we were before. I plead, I beg of you, do not join this protest,” he added.

 

He urged the FCT residents to ensure the nation’s capital remains safe by shunning the protest.

 

“Let us continue collectively to make the FCT safe. Let them go and do what they want to do. But not with us.

 

“Act maturely. Act maturely. Act like people who appreciate. Even the losses we have suffered to ensure your safety. Use it to appreciate us. If you do this, we will be happy. We will continue to provide security for you. God bless all of you,” he said.