The All Progressives Congress (APC), Spain chapter, has urged organisers of the proposed nationwide protest to be patient with President Bola Tinubu rather than plunge Nigeria into anarchy with the planned demonstration.
The organising secretary of the chapter, Julius Fayemi, in a statement on Wednesday, urged Nigerian youths to disregard anyone calling for protest in the country.
Mr Fayemi, however, said that no one was disputing the right to protest in any democratic society to remind the ruling party that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“Nigerians should be patient and dialogue; this is not the time to put the state into anarchy.
“If any analyst is telling the ‘Gen Z’ and the Millennium generations to protest peacefully without being hijacked by hoodlums, it is a lie from the pit of hell.
“If we review the list of protests in Nigeria in the era of colonial rule to date, can anyone point out and tell the world which protest ended peacefully?” he said.
He highlighted some protests that had left sour tastes in the mouth, including the Aba riot against taxation imposed by the colonial government in 1929 and the Egba women’s riot in the Palace of Oba Ladapo Ademola II in 1947.
He also listed the “Ali Must Go” riot against Segun Okeowo and Ahmadu Ali because of increments of 50 kobo school fees in 1978 and the protest against Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) organised by the National Union of Nigeria Students in 1989.
“We all witnessed the protest in Nigeria against the annulment of the election by the military regime in 1993 and that of the removal of fuel subsidy by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012.
“#EndSars 2020 is still in our memory. If any politician comes on any social media or platforms where youth should protest instead of dialogue, he or she is playing to the gallery.
“In all these protests, there was none that ended without claiming lives and properties.
“When the chips are down, the bourgeois and the privileged will leave the shore of Nigeria for safety.”
According to him, Nigeria must discourage and disregard the jingle of protest and join hands to move the country forward.
The APC chieftain said that Nigeria must cherish its unbroken 25 years of democracy, saying, “worst of civilian government is better than the best military.”
“Let’s allow this government to correct the mistakes of their predecessors. After all, hardship did not start today. Allow Mr President to focus and diagnose the problem, and a solution is around the corner.
“No government is perfect; one year may not be enough for the Tinubu administration to correct and change Nigeria. We are not ready to repeat the #EndSars protest,” he said.
Mr Fayemi, however, urged the government to talk to the youth and not talk at the youth, saying the problems facing the country were accumulated and not created by Mr Tinubu.
“Democracy is about dialogue. Nobody is saying protest is not part of democracy, but it should not be political.
“We know that the demands of the protesters are legitimate, but give the current government time to correct the anomalies.
“Give this regime time to ameliorate the suffering of the people because the agitation goes beyond the administration,” he said.
There have been so many controversies around some youth groups planning a nationwide protest from August 1 to 10 to demand the government’s solutions to rising costs of living and economic hardship.
(NAN)