The Presidency has been engaging in a hot exchange of words with Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of Nigeria’s Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, over a proposed anti-government protest titled ‘EndBadGovernance’.
The planned protest against economic hardship, which is gaining surging support in the social media space and elsewhere, is scheduled to hold in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja next month (August).
It proposes to highlight the geometric rise in the cost of food, transportation and other goods and services borne by Nigerians and elicit reliefs from government.
Prices of food and other basic needs have kept rising higher above the heads of the citizenry since the cancellation of the fuel subsidy regime and the placing of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, on a free float, at the inception of the President Bola Tinubu administration in government in May 2023.
Economist say both moves will benefit the local economy in the long term but will have severe short-term pains as is being witnessed.
As a consequence, the country is grappling with the worst inflationary trends and economic shocks in recent history.
The Federal Government, through the National Orientation Agency (NOA), and the Nigeria Police Force, as well as the House of Representatives, has warned against the protest.
Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, on Saturday accused the Labour Party and Peter Obi, of being the masterminds of the plan which is causing ripples across the country.
“Don’t be fooled: the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi, the failed presidential candidate of the Labour Party. And he should be held responsible for whatever crisis emanates from the action,” Onanuga charged in a post on his ‘X’ handle in the social media on Saturday.
Onanuga further warned that the protest could turn out like the ENDSARS demonstration staged by youths against police brutality in 2020, which went out of control and had unpleasant consequences after it was hijacked by miscreants.
The presidential aide insisted that the economy has been improving and inflation slowing. “There is no country in the world where people are not going through some economic challenges and where the cost of living is not a major issue,” he added.
Onanuga urged security agents to “interrogate these agents of destabilisation”.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, refuted Onanuga’s claim. Ifoh said that “there is no truth in that and the tweet is just the author’s figment of his imagination.
“Labour Party is known for being a very peaceful party and it has on several occasions asked its followers to follow peace at all times. We are not known as a lawless group and this was evident in the aftermath of the last general election.
“It is therefore delusional for anyone to link our supporters to the planned protest. Labour Party, Peter Obi and our supporters are not planning any protests.”
The LP spokesman said peaceful protests all over the world are initiated and executed by the people and not by the opposition.
“It is therefore puerile for the government or anyone for that matter, to begin to look for who to blame for the bad governance that is being witnessed in Nigeria today.
“Nigeria can still get it right if the right policies are initiated. We also advise that some aides of the presidency must be cautioned to avoid incendiary pronouncements capable of combusting the nation, all in the name of playing politics,” he added.
