By Promise Jumbo
The die is cast. Barring any last-minute change of mind by its ogranisers, the planned nationwide protests against hardship in Nigeria will take off on Thursday, August 1, 2024.
This is because the organisers of the demonstrations, dubbed #EndBadGovernance, Tuesday, rejected the proposal by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. Kayode Egbetokun, that the protest, if it must hold, should be held in confined centres or areas.
Egbetokun had, at a meeting with the organisers on Tuesday, suggested confined protests in identified locations and advised against street rallies.
“It is not advisable to go on street processions because as you are planning a protest, some are planning violence,” the IGP had counseled.
But lawyer to one of the groups organising the nationwide protest, Take It Back Movement, Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, roundly rejected the IGP’s proposal.
Also present at the virtual meeting with the IGP were: popular human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, representatives of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), other lawyers, civil society organisations, as well as some arrowheads of the planned protest.
The planned demonstrations, scheduled to run from August 1 to 10, 2024, were, according to the organisers, aimed at protesting against the crushing deprivations and severe economic hardship that Nigerians are currently going through.
The Federal Government has relentlessly appealed to the organisers to shelve the protests. In fact, the Tinubu Administration has been mobilisng various interest groups and opinion leaders across the country to dissuade the masterminds from going ahead.
But the harder the government tries, the more determined the organisers seem to be. Indeed, the more the mobilization for the protests continue to gain traction on social media. As it is, regardless of threats by some state governors and the IGP, the organisers are determined to ensure that the protests hold across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory.