The presidency has said former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, should be held responsible for the planned protest by citizens.
Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said all those calling for protest against economic hardship and hunger are supporters of Peter Obi.
He said Obi supporters decide to protest because he lost the last general election and not because of economic hardship and high inflation.
Onanuga called on security agencies to go after all citizens calling for protest in August.
“Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria: Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.
Don’t be fooled: the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi, the failed presidential candidate of the Labour Party. And he should be held responsible for whatever crisis emanates from the action,” he said.
Onanuga also said the protesters alleged planners were also the instigators of mayhem during the last Endsars protest.
He added, “The protest planners are also the same people who were instigated by IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu to launch the destructive ENDSARS protest in Nigeria in October 2020.
ENDSARS began as a genuine protest by youths against the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, notorious for its high-handedness.
IPOB members planning to extricate the South East region from Nigeria infiltrated the protest and hijacked it for their own agenda. Lagos still bears the scar of the malicious destruction by IPOB elements until today.
Two years after ENDSARS, the IPOB and the gullible innocents joined the Labour Party in 2022 to support Peter Obi, a sympathizer of their cause.
They are the people spreading the hashtags ‘EndBadGovernance’, ‘Tinubu Must Go,’ and ‘Revolution2024’.
They are not democrats but anarchists. They are attempting to call out our people via propaganda because their Messiah, Peter Obi, failed to win the Presidency in the 2023 election.
As bad losers, they don’t have the patience to wait for another election in 2027; they would rather destabilize Nigeria by staging a civilian coup against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
President Tinubu’s aide said the hashtag was a treasonable offence. “If they understand the meaning of their hashtags, they will realize they are clarion calls for treason. Wanting to end an elected government is high treason. Wanting revolution is a call for a coup d’etat, which is also high treason,” he said.
The statement on his X account added, “Security agents should, by now, begin to interrogate these agents of destabilization. There is no country in the world where people are not going through some economic challenges and where the cost of living is not a major issue.
No country is immune from economic turbulence at the moment. Civilized and democratic people wait for another election to make leadership changes. They don’t trigger mayhem in their countries by staging protests, the end of which nobody can predict.
Nigerian citizens must consider the government’s attitude and concern about the cost of living crisis when deciding whether to join the protests by the Labour Party and IPOB supporters.
The Tinubu government has not been found wanting in this regard. The minimum wage has been increased by more than 100 percent. Loans are being disbursed to students in tertiary schools.
A credit corporation has been launched to promote consumption credit. Palliatives, including the latest distribution of 740 trucks of rice to the 36 states and Abuja, are being rolled out. Businesses, such as pharmaceuticals, are being assisted. The Federal and state governments are investing heavily in agriculture to produce more food.
The economy is improving, inflation is slowing, the national debt has been reduced in dollar terms, and the FIRS has increased revenue generation to record levels. Investors are coming back to our country. Our stock market is the best in the world, with a 33 percent return on investment.
President Tinubu has a four-year mandate to run his agenda. Those calling for protest should wait till 2027 to either re-elect him or elect their Messiah, Mr Peter Obi.”
