The Take It Back movement concluded its 10-day nationwide protests against economic hardship yesterday (Saturday, August 10) with a vow to return to the streets with a 10-million-person march if President Bola Tinubu fails to address their demands.
From August 1 to yesterday (10 days), protesters marched through the streets of Abuja and other cities, in a bid to force the president to return fuel subsidy, reverse electricity tariffs hike, reduce the cost of governance, end looting of public funds, among others.
But in his national broadcast, which was expected to address these concerns, the president was widely perceived to have failed to use the opportunity to address those concerns, preferring instead to simply reiterate the promises he had made earlier as to how he planned to handle the economic crisis.
But although the protesters would appear to have got practically nothing out of the protests, they have remained resolute, carrying placards with messages like “Bring back corruption-free fuel subsidy,” “Rent must be monthly,” and “Nigerians are tired of bad leaders.”
Abiodun Sanusi, an activist, said the movement would temporarily halt demonstrations but warned that they would return with a larger and more determined crowd if their demands were not met.
“Earlier on, we declared 10 days of rage to end bad governance in Nigeria. However, it is now clear that President Bola Tinubu is not ready to listen to the demands of Nigerians.
“Today (yesterday) is the final day of the 10 days of rage, but we are promising the Nigerian government and President Tinubu that we will come back until he accedes to our demands.
“We will return to the streets, and this time, we will be more than this. We will be declaring a 10-million-person march across the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,” Sanusi said.
It will be recalled that the protests were marked by violence, with security agents using lethal force against protesters and journalists in Abuja, Kaduna, and other states.
The Nigerian Army admitted to mistakenly killing a teenage boy, Ismail Mohammed, during a protest in Zaria. (Vanguard)
