A frontline civil society group, the Citizens Free Service Forum (CFSF), has cautioned the Nigerian government from hounding innocent Nigerians pressing ahead with plans to embark on a 10-day mass protest against the dire economic situation in the country and insecurity between August 1, 2024 and August 15, 2024.
In a statement issued in Abuja, CFSF said the rhetoric of the government and the security agencies since plans of the protest came to light has been very undemocratic and shows that the government of the day is yet to wean itself of military mentality in dealing with constitutional issues.
Last week, the director-general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu, had told newsmen in Abuja, that the government will take measures to forestall any violent occurrences in the identified locations and that the intentions of those behind the planned protest were not about governance or the state of the economy but a decoy to destabilize the country, cause mayhem, and carry out arson, killings, and maiming of innocent citizens for narrow political reasons.
Government officials have also tried to pin the protests to one of the presidential candidates in the 2023 General Elections. Subsequently there have been reports of arrests of identified leaders of the planned hunger protest including Kano-based TikToker, Junaidu Abdullahi, popularly known as Abusalma, who was arrested and remanded in prison custody after posting a viral video calling for widespread protests against the economic hardship in the country. There are reports other leaders of the planned protest are also on the government watch list.
Executive Director of CFSF, Comrade Sani Baba said: “We find it very disturbing that Nigerians who have expressed their desire to express their constitutional right to embark on peaceful protest are being intimidated by the state using Gestapo tactics of misinformation, threats and arrests. We find it utterly alarming and unacceptable”
Comrade Sani expressed grave concern that rather than address the issues raised by the youths, the government is trying hard through its officials making unguarded statements to paint the planned protests as sectional and an attempt to topple the current administration in similar fashion that the #EndSARS protests were labeled.
“In as much as we will never support violent and unconstitutional means of self-expression, nothing on ground suggests that the planned protests are calculated to destabilize the government or the constitutional rights of other Nigerians who may choose to go about their lawful duties on those days,
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“We urge the government and its state security apparatus to stop heating up the polity through their intimidating rhetoric that reminds us of the military era when protests were criminalized and Nigerians were forced into exile for speaking against oppression and injustice,” the statement reads.
The CFSF boss urged the government to release innocent youths planning the protests and address the genuine grievances of Nigerians that have been impoverished by the current administration’s flip flop economic policies and seeming incapacity to address insecurity which has stopped Nigerians from going to their farms to guarantee food security or traveling inter-city to carry out their businesses.
“At this point in time, the government should be deepening democracy not only by ensuring its policies are pro-people, but also through constructive engagement of the citizens. Using intimidation, underhand and undemocratic tactics to muzzle Nigerians into submission is completely unacceptable,” the group added.
