Obasempire reports that the coordinators of the protest against economic difficulties and poor governance have announced intentions to continue their demonstration at Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos today.
This information was shared in a communiqué released on Sunday by Hassan Taiwo, Ayoyinka Oni, and Adegboyega Adeniji representing the organizers.
The announcement followed the President’s address earlier on Sunday, where Tinubu recognized the protesters’ concerns and called for them to halt their demonstrations in favor of dialogue.
Part of the statement read: “We consider the President’s decision to address the nation an important victory for our movement.
“Without our courage and resolve to dare the odds, even this acknowledgement would not have happened. So far, we have demonstrated that a President is not greater than the rest of the country.
“In our view, the president cannot be approbating and reprobating at the same time. The President cannot offer an olive branch while at the same time holding a dagger to our throat.”
They called on young people and the general public to join them at 7 a.m. on Monday at Gani Fawehinmi Park for the fifth day of the protest.
Obasempire reports that former Education Minister Obiageli Ezekwesili has condemned President Bola Tinubu’s Sunday address regarding the ongoing nationwide protests against poor governance.
The former minister described the speech as profoundly disappointing.
Ezekwesili stated that Tinubu’s address was a significant missed opportunity to reassure citizens with clear, evidence-based solutions and a detailed plan to combat poor governance.
The government critic asserted that the speech seemed to be crafted from a perspective of “retaliating against Tinubu’s imagined adversaries.”
Tinubu addressed the nation on Sunday about the protests, ruling out the reinstatement of the fuel subsidy and urging protest organizers to withdraw from the streets.
In a statement on her X handle, Ezekwesili lamented that it is regrettable to witness Nigerian public “leaders” talking and acting like failures on issues of governance.
She said: “@officialABAT , As one of millions of Nigerians who were at church when you delivered your late-in-coming Speech to Citizens on the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria protests, let me loudly say it was terribly underwhelming to read.
‘Your Speech reads like a page from your party manifesto and terribly failed to connect to what our Citizens on the Streets are angry and protesting about.
‘Your speech is quite a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and outline of convincing evidence-based actions that you and your @NigeriaGov will immediately take to address the priority #BadGovernance concerns.
“Your Speech was sadly again written out of a mindset that is focused on “getting back at our enemies”. Imaginary enemies at that! No true Leader has the luxury of having “enemies” among their Citizens. Not at all. A Public Leader becomes the Leader of ALL with a mind that does not think of any as their enemies.
“This is why it is ever unfortunate to see Nigerian public “Leaders” talk and behave like Losers on matters of public governance where they are expected to rally their ALL Citizens behind the common purpose of nation building.
“It is nauseating to observe this recurrent innate unwillingness of Nigerian public leaders to admit responsibility for the demands of the same public leadership that they kill and maim citizens to assume.
“@officialABAT, Citizens know when they are being badly governed and from what one can see, Nigerians have now realized that they must collectively speak up and take action otherwise their self-obsessed rulers (and not leaders) will not pay them any heed at all.
“As we remember and pray for families of all our citizens mauled down or maimed for demanding an End to Bad Governance, let me call on you @officialABAT to immediately instruct the IG @PoliceNG and his men to “STOP KILLING PEACEFUL PROTESTERS NOW!”
“Also fish out all law enforcement personnel that have killed and maimed citizens and ensure they are sanctioned as a deterrence to their colleagues.”
Obasempire reports that at least 205 chairs, musical instruments, and other equipment valued at millions of naira were reportedly stolen by vandals in Katsina State on the first day of the ongoing nationwide planned peaceful protest against adversity.
Vandals targeted a Living Faith Church in the Daura Local Government Area, making off with 205 chairs, musical instruments, and other valuable items worth millions of naira.
Pastor David Sarki, who oversees the church, informed our correspondent in Katsina on Sunday that the church service had to be canceled because of the incident.
He said, “Because the hoodlums took everything inside the church on the first day of the protest, they decided to worship at their various home cells.
“We have two security personnel working in the church; one was on duty while the other was off. When the protest began around 10:00 am, the hoodlums just diverted to the church, many of them in Keke Napep (tricycle), broke the door and windows and entered the church auditorium.
“They took everything inside the church auditorium, including the wall digital clock, musical instruments, pulpit, pastor’s chairs, plastic chairs, a desktop computer at the reception, and a scoreboard where the accountant usually kept church documents. They scattered everything.
“Three churches were their target. They succeeded in invading the Living Faith Church and Deeper Life, but couldn’t gain access to the third one, which is the Anglican Church, because of the strong protection at the gate.”
He added, “We have informed the police and the army about it, and the police told us yesterday that they have made some arrests.
“I am surprised by this attack. When we are thinking about ending bad governance protests, which have now escalated to the invasion of churches, it is something that everyone should seriously condemn. It is not food that we store in the house of God; it is a place of worship. Why is it only a church? The government should come to the reality that they are serving humanity, and God will judge us all, whether political or religious leaders.
“My prayer for the perpetrators is that they should repent from what they are doing because for you to enter a church, a place of worship, is wrong, and you know you are not fighting, man. They should seek repentance. I know God is forgiving, and He will forgive them.”
Similarly, the Pastor in charge of Power of Resurrection in Katsina State, Nelson Onyekachuku, whose church was also invaded by the hoodlums during the protest in Katsina town, lamented the vandalisation of the church windows as the hoodlums could not gain access to the building due to the iron protectors of the church gate.
Onyekachuku, who is also the former state Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Katsina, condemned the action entirely, noting that they should not add to the pain of the church.
He called on the government to change its policy, address the issues of the people and always ensure the protection of the church whenever such an incident happens.
Obasempire reports that Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s national address concerning the ongoing protests throughout the country.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Soyinka voiced his dismay and apprehension about the government’s response to the protests.
Soyinka observed that while the presidential address detailed the government’s corrective measures since its inception, it failed to adequately address the management of the protests.
He denounced the use of live ammunition and tear gas against peaceful demonstrators, calling it a “regression” that recalls colonial-era acts of contempt.
Soyinka said, “I set my alarm clock for this morning to ensure that I did not miss President Bola Tinubu’s impatiently awaited address to the nation on the current unrest across the nation.
“His outline of government’s remedial action since inception, aimed at warding off just such an outbreak, will undoubtedly receive expert and sustained attention both for effectiveness and in content analysis.
My primary concern, quite predictably, is the continuing deterioration of the state’s seizure of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell conspicuously short.
“Such short-changing of civic deserving, regrettably, goes to arm the security forces in the exercise of impunity and condemns the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.
“Live bullets as state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest.
Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S, not peculiar to the Nigerian nation. They belong indeed in a class of their own, never mind the collateral claims emblazoned on posters.
“They serve as summons to governance that a breaking point has been reached and thus, a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation.
The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, and for which notice was served, constitutes a retrogression that takes the nation even further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests.
“It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that induced the late stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government.”
Soyinka noted that the “nation’s security agencies cannot pretend unawareness of alternative models for emulation, civilized advances in security intervention”.
He said, “Need we recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of what is generally known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curriculum.
In all of the coverage that I watched, I did not catch one single instance of a gun leveled at protesters, much less fired at them even during direct physical confrontations.
“The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.
“The time is long overdue, surely, to abandon, permanently, the anachronistic resort to lethal means by the security agencies of governance. No nation is so under-developed, materially impoverished, or simply internally insecure as to lack the will to set an example.
All it takes is to recall its own history, then exercise the will to commence a lasting transformation, inserting a break in the chain of lethal responses against civic society”.
Obasempire reports that there has been alleged accusations of bribery and violence in the recent anti-governance protests in Nigeria.
Demonstrators claim that some individuals were paid to disrupt their efforts, while others allege that they were subjected to violent tactics by authorities.
Protesters have voiced frustration over what they perceive as attempts to undermine their right to protest. According to reports, individuals allegedly affiliated with Seyi Tinubu and Umaru (Shettima) were accused of offering money to disrupt the demonstrations.
It was claimed that ten buses were used to transport people who were reportedly stationed at the stadium to observe and potentially interfere with the protests.
One protester expressed disappointment, stating that leaders like Tinubu and Shettima should act as father figures to the citizens. They criticized the lack of allowances and rights for citizens, suggesting that political leaders should emulate practices seen in Europe.
While some protesters lack concrete evidence of bribery, a man who identified himself as a Keke Napep driver claimed to have proof. He alleged that he and others were paid 5,000 naira each to counter the protests. This man reported being taken to a location where payments were made to anyone who showed up.
Additionally, the protests have seen reports of police aggression. Demonstrators recounted being teargassed on one day and shot at with live ammunition the following day.
These revelations have added to the growing tension and concern surrounding the ongoing protests.
Obasempire reports that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has strongly denounced the effort by an unidentified group to organize the “IgboMustGo” demonstration in Lagos, calling it irresponsible and perilous rhetoric.
Sanwo-Olu, in a brief statement signed by Gboyega Akosile, his special adviser on media and publicity, cautioned Lagos residents against permitting any group to foster division between them and other communities residing in Lagos.
The statement reads: “The attention of Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has been drawn to a post by LagosPedia, a social media handle on X (formerly Twitter) that calls on the Igbo to vacate Lagos and Southwest of Nigeria and brace up for a massive hashtag #Igbomustgo protest from 20th to 30th August 2024.
The governor of Lagos State and indeed, Lagos State government wish to distance themselves from the reckless, divisive and dangerous rhetoric, saying Lagos remains home to every Nigerian citizen regardless of their ethnic nationality.
Governor Sanwo-Olu views the post as not only reckless and divisive but also an attempt to sow a seed of discord between the Yoruba in the Southwest and other tribes, especially those who have made Lagos their permanent place of abode.
The governor appeals to Lagosians not to allow any person or group of individuals to create tensions in the State, calling on the security agencies to promptly investigate those behind the handle and bring them to justice.
Governor enjoins Lagosians to ignore the post and any post of that nature, promising to double his efforts towards ensuring lasting peace in the state.”
Obasempire reports that the Lagos State Police Command has announced that it is currently not detaining anyone for taking part in the ongoing demonstration against difficulties in the state.
The command’s spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, mentioned this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Lagos, indicating that no demonstrator is in their custody.
“All protesters arrested on Thursday were released same Thursday.
“The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Adegoke Fayoade, called the State CID to order for their release,” he said.
One of those leading the protests, Inibehe Effiong, had told the gathering at Gani Fawehinmi Park that no fewer than 12 protesters were arrested on Thursday.
Effiong, however, later corroborated the police spokesperson’s claim that all those arrested had been released.
He commended the police and other security agents for their professional handling of the protest in the state.
The #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protesters on Friday gathered in front of Park in Ojota for the second day.
The incident took place on Friday, August 2, during the second day of ongoing protests against poor governance, economic hardship, and hunger.
Eyewitnesses reported that chaos ensued when the police began firing at the protesters. In the confusion, one officer was struck by bullets from other officers. The wounded officer was found lying in a pool of blood amid a distressed crowd.
The protests, part of the #EndBadGovernance movement, have attracted considerable attention as citizens nationwide voice their dissatisfaction with the current conditions. Demonstrators have been demanding improved governance, economic reforms, and solutions to widespread hunger.
The incident in Katsina has intensified the strain between law enforcement and the public. Videos of the tragic event have spread widely on social media, leading to outrage and criticism of the police’s conduct.
Many have condemned the officers’ unprofessional behavior and called for accountability and better training for those managing public demonstrations.
Despite the tragic event, protesters have remained steadfast in their calls for change. The #EndBadGovernance protests continue to gain momentum, with participants urging the government to tackle the urgent issues facing the nation.
Obasempire reports that the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has disclosed that the Federal Government has yet to announce the locations for purchasing the ₦40,000 rice due to concerns about potential takeover and hoarding by affluent individuals.
Idris clarified that the government has set up various centers nationwide for acquiring 50kg bags of rice at ₦40,000, as part of President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s initiatives to enhance living standards for citizens.
In a press conference at the Radio House in Abuja, Idris affirmed that the rice is available and is currently being distributed to various states. However, due to security concerns, specific routes and schedules for distribution cannot be revealed at this moment.
He emphasized, “The distribution process is underway, but for security reasons, we cannot specify the exact routes and times. The rice will be sold at ₦40,000 and is being made available at various points nationwide. We are taking measures to prevent it from being monopolized by those with financial resources, ensuring that the intended beneficiaries receive it.”
Obasempire reports that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) issued a warning on Wednesday to Governor Peter Mba of Enugu State and the military to cease purported land acquisition for RUGA projects in Enugu State, asserting their intent to oppose such actions.
IPOB sounded the note of warning through its image maker, Emma Powerful, stating, “We have observed that the Nigeria Army deceitfully and shamefully mounted their flags and signboards at the ancestral land of Ochima community at Igbo Etiti LGA, Enugu State. The Nigerian Army and Enugu State Governor have marked these lands to be taken by force or by crook.
” The Enugu Governor and the Nigerian Army are deceptively occupying these lands and handing over the same lands to the Fulani terrorists they nicknamed herdsmen to convert into a Fulani settlement called RUGA. It is obvious that Governor Peter Mba and the Enugu State House of Assembly members want to create confusion and insecurity in Enugu State.
“When did the Nigerian Army start collecting the community’s lands by force and handing them over to Fulani terrorists for RUGA and settlement? We will not accept that in the South East Region. The Governor and his “Oh Yes members” in the State House of Assembly may be daft to understand that the Fulanized Nigerian Army is grabbing the community lands for Fulani settlements in that region of Biafra.
” The Nigerian Army has a large expanse of land in their formations and barracks within Enugu State. What else do they need these lands in Igbo-Eze LGA for, if not to deceitfully grab the community’s land and transfer to the marauding Fulanis. Ndigbo and IPOB-ESN will resist any marauding Fulani settlement in Biafra Land.
“Ala Igbo is the dot in the circle according to Othman Dan Fodio foundamentalist, Mohammed Buhari. Ndigbo do not have sufficient land for our own agricultural and developmental projects, let alone the land that the marauding Fulani terrorists will occupy in any disguise. Fulanis claim to be Nigerians but can not be found on any Nigerian map as owners or occupiers of any ancestral land.
“Hence, they should go and occupy their ancestral land and leave Ndigbo land alone. Ndigbo are not seeking any lands to occupy in Northern Nigeria. Fulani cabals and their political stooges in the South East Region should desist from actions that will make the South East Region unsafe and insecure. It is evident that the Nigerian Army are accomplices to the various terrorist attacks by the Fulani herdsmen across Nigeria.
“The Nigerian Army are endangering the territorial integrity of Nigeria that they swore to protect by colluding with foreign Fulani jihadists to grab indigenous People’s land by force. This evil collaboration of the Nigerian Army and the marauding Fulanis in land grabbing will be resisted by IPOB with everything within our power. ESN Operatives must do everything humanly possible to ensure that the Nigeria Military and the Enugu State Governor do not cede any land to the marauding Fulani terrorists nicknamed herdsmen, in Enugu State.
“The Enugu State Governor Dr Peter Mba is Establishing Ruga from the back door and he will fail and run out of government and stop subjugating the people of Enugu State and Ndigbo in their land. The information available to us is that the Enugu state governor Dr Peter Mba has agreed to establish livestock Ministry Regional Veterinary Hospital in Enugu State and that is another easy way to establish RUGA and Fulani settlement for Fulani.
“That will not work for Peter Mba and livestock ministry. This Peter Mba must not think that millions of Igbo people are fools. The Fulani tried their best to force Ruga on the East during the Buhari era but failed, now Peter Mba thinks he can succeed with the new gimmicks and antics. They tried to use Fulani herdsmen terrorists to force our people in Enugu State and south East states to succumb to Ruga and met a fierce confrontation from ESN.
“Now they have bargained with the governor of Enugu state to bring this Ruga from the back door. It is imprtant we show Peter Mba how IPOB-ESN behave and Peter Mba should tell us how he became Enugu state governor. The good people of Enugu state did not vote for Peter Mba as governor. Peter Mba is not sure of what he is doing.
“Peter Mba refused to admit that there are other livestock departments like pigs, chickens, goats and other animal but he focused on only Fulani cows, what did Peter Mba need to achieve on Fulani settlement in Enugu State?
“Dr Peter Mba must learn from our neighbours. Fulani has become part of the Yoruba people in Ilorin and part of the Tiv people in Benue. How did they become part of Benue indigenes? They came there and were given land by the elders. After many years, Fulani has expanded; brought their families and turned that place into a community. Today they are now indigenous to Benue state and Kwara state. They have emir and government representatives.
“This is exactly the game they are playing using the Enugu state governor to achieve in Igboland. Why Peter Mba and Enugu state? Enugu state is a gateway out of Ị́gbo land and they are closer to the north. So if Fulani become indigenes of Enugu state, it will be difficult to chase them out and also it will be easier for them to penetrate other communities in Igboland and that IPOB-ESN will not tolerate or accept
“The Enugu State Stakeholders, the Traditional Rulers, and the Religious Leaders must call Governor Peter Mba and his clueless House of Assembly members to order, or they will face what they cannot bear soon.
“The same way IPOB-ESN frustrated desperate Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma from creating Fulani settlement in Imo State, in the same manner the fulanization agenda in Enugu State will be twarted because IPOB has sworn to protect Biafra land from land grabbers, jihadists, and terrorists and we must continue until Biafra is restored.
“Fulani herdsmen settlement is synanimous with terrorism and banditry. The Middle Belt Region of Nigeria is an epicenter of terrorism and banditry today because they allowed Fulani vandals to settle in their land. Today, the same Fulani settlers are killing and maiming their host communities, forcing many of the indigenous people to flee from their ancestral land while the Fulani vandals are allowed to occupy.
“This scenario is what IPOB and ESN are making sure that Ndigbo never experience. Unfortunately, some selfish politicians in the East are blinded by their political ambition. They are willing to trade Ndigbo’s homogeneity, safety, security, and biodiversity. That will not happen as long as IPOB is in control of the Biafra land.
“Gov. Peter Mba and the Nigeria military should stop the subtle and forceful takeover of the communal land in Igbo-Eze LGA in Enugu State. Whatever amount is involved and any agreement reached with Fulani groups should be discarded immediately. No part of Alaigbo will be reserved and preserved for Fulani settlement or in any other code name that they will try to give to RUGA. IPOB volunteers, ESN Operatives, and other patriotic Biafrans will never allow Fulani terrorist settlement in Biafra Land,” the movement vowed.
