In desperate moves to halt the planned protest slated for August, President Bola Tinubu on Thursday held an emergency closed-door meeting with APC governors, traditional rulers, NSA, IGP
By Emma ogbuehi
In continuation of the desperate moves to halt the planned ‘EndBadGovernance’ protest slated for August, President Bola Tinubu on Thursday held an emergency closed-door meeting with top traditional rulers, security top brass in his government. Also in the meeting were governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The high-delegation meeting was held at the State House in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The APC governors were led to the meeting by the Chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum and Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma.
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Channels TV reports that some first-class traditional rulers were spotted at the meeting with the President. They include the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi; the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Saad Abubakar III; and other traditional leaders across the country.
The meeting was also attended by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu; Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun; as well as ministers and other members of the President’s cabinet.
A delegation of Islamic scholars (Ulamas) later jointed the high-powered meeting with the President.
The President, governors and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had earlier in the week appealed to Nigerians to shelve the planned ‘EndBadGovernance’ protest slated for next month.
On Thursday, the military authorities warned that unscrupulous elements plan to hijack the protest and use it to stage anarchy like what was recently witnessed in East African country Kenya.
The police had also warned against bloody demonstrations come next month just as Uzodimma surmised that the protest could be hijacked and turn violent like the EndSARS nationwide protest against police brutality back in October 2020.
Notwithstanding, Apex Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere has endorsed the nationwide protest being planned by the youths, arguing that the youths raise important issues that need be addressed by the government.
Afenifere Publicity Secretary Justice Faloye in endorsing the protest, blamed the situation on President Bola Tinubu’s superficiality, which he said, shows in the way he removed fuel subsidy without planning for the fallout and in his refusal to restructure the economy to benefit all citizens.
“When he (Tinubu) said subsidies were dead, we said there is nowhere in the world that you won’t have this kind of situation, it’s not protesters that are endangering the polity, but it’s the government’s policies. Anywhere in the world, you can’t remove subsidies like that,” Faloye argued on Arise TV on Thursday.
The planned protest against economic hardship, which is gaining traction on social media, has been scheduled to be held across all states of the Federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, in August. The organisers of the protest have been faceless, with Tinubu’s aides accusing leading opposition figures as the brains behind the action.
Prices of food and basic commodities have gone through the roof in the last months, as Nigerians battle one of the country’s worst inflation and economic crisis sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex windows.