Mobilisation has stepped up for the planned nationwide protest scheduled to hold from August 1, with various posts on digital media platforms asking Nigerians to come all out to protest against ‘bad governance in Nigeria’.
The nationwide protest scheduled for August 1 to 10, titled: “End Bad Governance in Nigeria 2024,” and organized under the banner of “10 days of rage,” aims to address multiple grievances against the current government.
Various groups are expected to participate in the nationwide protest with major activities planned in cities like Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu, and Kaduna.
Groups, activists, civil society organisations, individuals are reported to be mobilizing for what they describe as a grand protest that would rock Nigeria.
The primary demands for the protest are for reduction of fuel prices to below N300 per litre, reverting tertiary education fees to previous fees, restoring affordable electricity tariffs, establishment of emergency fund to support SMEs, reduction in salaries and allowances of senators, House of Representatives members, reopening of national borders, reforming the EFCC, declaring a state of emergency on inflation and reforming the judiciary.
Protesters are asked to wear white with black attire and encouraged to come with placards, handkerchiefs, a bottle of water, a white cloth or ribbon, and the Nigerian flag.
In mobilising for the protest, a group, Northern Initiative for Growth in a letter, dated July 16, 2024, written to the Director, State Security Services, Bauchi State Command, gave the notification of a protest across the 20 local government areas of the state on August 1.
The letter detailed the designated routes of the procession while assuring good conduct and orderliness during the protest, asking security to provide maximum protection during the procession.
The group forwarded similar correspondence to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), saying the protest would take place across Northern Nigeria, enjoining the IGP to direct police commissioners to provide security on the protest routes and ensure that police personnel avoid using excessive force or unconstitutional means to disperse protesters.
The Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), in a tweet on its official X handle, on Thursday, tweeted: “Protest is a fundamental right,” seven consecutive times.
In reply to the tweet by SERAP, an X user under the name, “A letter from Jagaban,” posted: “While it is the right of people to express their displeasure about government policies. It must be done within the ambit of the law or they will be clamped down. We will never tolerate repeat of EndSARS destructions in Lagos. You are free to go back to your state.”
Precious Omiunu, @prazolar9, argued that the protest was a mass opposition of the people, for the first time, versus the government.
On his part, Ibrahim Abdulkari, @ziter001, tweeted: “Protest is not Haram; Protest is Democracy,” though Babatunde Gbadamosi,
@BOGadams, argued against protest, calling rather for a “total, unyielding, relentless revolt against their criminal enforcers, regardless of garb, by any means necessary.”
Security agencies are also said to have put their personnel on the alert, through correspondences sent to the various commands, sighted on digital media.
