L-R : Prof. Olurotimi Coker, Consultant Psychiatrist, Lagos State University; Amb Eniola Ajayi, Former Ambassador to the Netherlands; Dr Kayode Fayemi, Former Governor of Ekiti State; Pharm. Akinjide Adeosun, Chairman ST.RACHEAL’S People Consulting & Mrs Olubamiwo Adeosun, Former Secretary to the State Government (SSG),Oyo-State & Prof.Ndubuisi NWOKOMA, Professor of Economics, University of Lagos at the 2024 Leadership & Economic Summit and Launch of ST.RACHEAL’S People Consulting Limited in Lagos.
A civil society organization (CSO), the United Action Front (UAF), has called on President Bola Tinubu to, as a matter of urgent national importance, reverse fuel petrol price to the pre-January 2023 price of N167 per litre of pms, saying that that is the most effective way of averting the impending nationwide strike than “all the blame game and blackmail being employed by aides of President Bola Tinubu to arm-twist Nigerians over the impending nationwide protest instead of addressing issues bothering on hardship.”
In a statement signed by Olawale Okunniyi Head, Coordinating Secretariat and issued yesterday (Friday, July 26), ahead of the proposed nationwide strike scheduled to commence this August 1, UAF urged the president to call his aides to order, saying that those working with a president like Bola Tinubu, who is himself a product of pro-democracy struggles, must understand and be made to respect the constitutional right of Nigerians in a democracy to engage in civil, peaceful protests against what they consider as bad governance by political leadership.
“As leaders of the organised civil society and pro-democracy movement that forced the military out of power, leading to the restoration of the democracy now being bastardised by opportunists in power, we sadly wish to note that governance in Nigeria has largely become self-serving, having been hijacked by political traders and state captors, to the exclusion and detriment of a vast majority of citizens who are wallowing in abject poverty, penury and hopelessness,” Okunniyi fumed, lamenting that rather than check their own excesses for the greater good, those in power appear bent on continuing with the exploitation of the people for their own selfish gains. .
“These mercantilists in power, who are presently entrenched in destructive state-capture of Nigeria, rather than check their excesses and repent of their exploitative politics, are still blind-folded by their lust for rapacious, personal aggrandizement and endless hanker after perks of office and filthy lucre, to the extent of shamelessly indulging in blaming and blackmailing innocent leaders of the opposition for their self-inflicted conflict with Nigerian citizens,” he lashed out.
“We are even very shocked that Bola Tinubu, who is supposed to be a product of our pro-democracy struggles against the military, can become the most culpable president of Nigeria (with regard to) anti- people and anti-democratic rule. We had thought that a person with the democratic experience and credentials of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must have by now resolved the Nigerian democratic and economic crisis, whose simple solution we articulated and put in the face of the military but alas his short reign has deepened the economic hardship and sufferings of Nigerians.
“As vanguard of democracy in Nigeria, which the Tinubu government has refused to listen to its various appeals for good governance and pro-people’s policies, we wish to throw our weight behind the planned peaceful nationwide citizens’ protest to compel government to hearken to the voice and demand of the people for the amelioration of the sufferings and hardships in the land, which were essentially exacerbated by the mindless hike in the price of petrol by the Tinubu Administration.”
“Consequently, government must go beyond blackmailing opposition leaders and issuing threats and appeals to Nigerians by taking urgent actions to drastically bring down the price of petrol to pre- January 2023 price of ₦167 per litre of PMS as this will catalyse a major increasing in the purchasing power and wellbeing of Nigerians especially the masses and youths,” the UAF leader counselled, noting that no amount of what he called “corruptive palliatives” could solve the economic hardships and sufferings brought upon the citizens by the “subsidy has gone” announcement of President Tinubu during his inauguration on May 29, 2023.”
However, as part of the nation’s organised Civil Society, considered as “the conscience of the nation”, UAF, Okunniyi said, would monitor the planned nationwide citizen action in order to assess and ensure compliance with ethics of civil protest, especially on the side of security agents.
Accordingly, the group has appealed to the government and security agents not to turn the planned citizens’ civil action, “as usual, into riots and anarchy by trying to forcefully stop or frustrate the peaceful protest of the citizens of Nigeria,” warning that such a step might be counterproductive as it could only worsen an already bad situation.
“This will only make Nigerians more determined to resist the growing dictatorship of the government and further expose Nigerian security forces as oppressive and anarchic,” Okunniyi declared.
