From Mustapha Adamu, Kano
Nigeria Patriotic Front Movement, NPFM, has urged President Bola Tinubu to stop blaming organizers of #EndBadGovernance protest for violence that marred the demonstrations in some states.
NPFM pointed out that the protest started peacefully but later turned violent in “some targeted states” by the government.
At a press conference in Kano on Tuesday, Comrade Abdulmajid Yakubu Daudu said the violence was not restricted to Kano, Borno, Jigawa and Kaduna alone, but happened in Abuja, Lagos, Plateau among others.
According to Daudu, the president blamed protest organisers for the violence but was silent about the thuggery, bloodletting, and murderous conduct of those who unleashed mayhem, in his name, especially in Kano, where public and private properties were looted, destroyed, and set ablaze.
“Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, broke his long silence on the ongoing nationwide mass protest against bad governance, high cost of living and extreme poverty across Nigeria. As the president himself admitted, the protests were carried out largely by the youths. And in four states of the North, Borno, Jigawa, Kaduna, and Kano, it degenerated into violence.
“So too in other unmentioned states, such as Lagos, Plateau, and the federal capital territory, Abuja, the seat of federal might, where skirmishes between protesters and law enforcement authorities occurred in full view of the world.
“What type of impression is Mr. President out to portray about protest violence in the country? This is concerning. Blame game: The president blamed protest organisers for the violence. Yet, here too, he was silent about the thuggery, bloodletting, and murderous conduct of those who unleashed mayhem, in his name, especially in Kano, where public and private properties were looted, destroyed, and set ablaze.
“This havoc was not spontaneous. It was, in certain respects, targeted. How do we explain the looting and arson at the NCC office? or the attack on the Karno state high court? Even the Kano state government house was not spared.
“However, it was saved by two factors: the heavy security at the main entrance, and the overwhelming presence of peaceful NPFM’s protesters around the same area, blocking the way of the sinister arsonists that they vastly outnumbered.
“These acts had nothing to do with peaceful protest organisers, but rather the so-called counter protesters whom the president kept mute about,” the NPFM alleged.
The group also blend Tinubu of evading most of the people’s demands during his Nationwide Broadcast, adding that the President “instead resorted to self-publicity about his good intentions, and the bad political agenda of others,” the NPFM alleged.
“Where is the evidence for this? And where is statesmanship here? The core issues are still untouched: petrol pump price, electricity tariff, CBN and commercial bank interest rates, cost of governance, education as human rights, senior citizens pensions and gratuities, grand corruption, food inflation, cross border trade, re-nationalisation of the NNPC and electricity distribution services, and, above all, security.”
