Coalition of Civil Society groups, ethnic as well as pressure groups in Plateau State have expressed their division not to participate in the planned nationwide protest slated for August 01 – 10.
Addressing newsmen in Jos on Tuesday, the Convener Comrade Prince Miaphen said following the brewing national tension occasioned by threats that has remained masked, representatives of Civil Society, Pressure, Ethnic Nationalities and Special Interest Groups met in Jos between Saturday July 27 to Monday July 29, 2024 to review the situation and offer our opinion, and take an informed stand in our considered best interest of the country.
In his words: “As we noted in our communique, there has been a consensus among Nigerians that the nation’s economy has for long being on the wrong direction with very dire socio economic consequences.
“It appeared that successive governments, especially of the more recent past, merely designed ways to survive and pass the buck to the next, this give rise to the strange phenomenon of many citizens arguing that the past government, in which they may have criticized or totally condemned is better than the present”.
He said, “Though unpopular but rightly and courageously, however, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarked on the most daring economic reforms, taking in his strides, two most critical and avoided economic regimes petroleum subsidy and foreign exchange fixing. Among other reforms, these are still the most debatable in the Country, and opinions continue to differ and widen on them.
“While those regimes appear to give citizens a false sense of wellness, it stagnated the economy, and many cartels fed fat on national resources as a result of that. These cartels have not relented in sponsoring very dangerous narratives and inciting citizens against the government.
“And citizens react according to the obvious economic hardship occasioned by the reforms. We dare say that nobody can blame those who are impatient with government after all, social contradiction and misery suffered by any citizens are evident before us.
“Government on its part has always behaved like some spoilt kids, mounting their concerns without engaging on critical stakeholders and deliberately demonstrating their own sacrifice in the face of all these challenges. When we are told to tighten our belts, we often see the belts of the prechers totally unbuckled. There is also the issue of absence of clear information, misinformation or disinformation. Consequently, a combination of many factors that border on frustration, discontent and even euphoria, and also political and economic interests, treasonable intents and outright desire for anarchy have conflagrated into the proposed “End Bad Government Protest.
The groups added that “Let us also note that since the incident in Kenya, which has its own peculiarity and influences, the voices of oppositions, bitter and disgruntled politicians and other unpatriotic interests have been on the campaign of employing sensationalism and exploiting the outcome of the initial challenges of the visionary and bold reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to instigate Nigerians, particularly the young ones into the unrest because of hardship.
“That the euphoria that protests will become a magic wand with which things will be turned around in the political opium carefully being administered by the promoters of these unknown anarchists. They will never never tell those they intend to deceive that these protests which must end in chaos because it has no control will birth severer hardship on the citizens. No one must be deceived. Let us be clear. The original flyer, picked on the internet for the protests, is titled : “END BAD GOVERNMENT”, and not “END BAD GOVERNANCE”, as it has now been rechristened. It is a clear subterfuge for the use of mass riots to illegally remove constitutionally established government. It is a treasonable proposal and actually proceed is treason,” they added.
The groups urged Nigerians to remain calm as they are articulating their demands in an orderly manner through different groups and present them to government.
-9News Nigeria.
