We share Nigerians’ pains, protests not the best option – Amb. Waiya

By Abdullahi Yusuf

The Executive Director, Citizens for Development and Education (CDE), Amb. Ibrahim Waiya on Monday decried the alarmingly deteriorating economic crunch in the country, but said street protests are not the best option to address the situation.

Waiya spoke in Kano against the backdrop of plans by yet-to-be-identified groups to stage mass protests against the current economic hardships in the country.

“The low level of our civilization and exposure, as well the conflicting sentiments around religion and ethnicity may not allow us to have well-coordinated protests.

“Cumulatively, the economic challenges in Nigeria are enough to motivate the citizens to take to the streets, to show their anger, however, the low level of our civilization and exposure, as well the conflicting sentiments around religion and ethnicity may not allow us to have well-coordinated protests which could translate into something positive,” he said.

Amb.Waiya who doubles as the
Chairman, Conference of Northern States Civil Society Networks also said: “We are in support of the peaceful protest to show our anger, we are however skeptical on what could be the outcome, as many greedy and selfish politicians may take advantage of our division to hijack the process through the instrumentality of their paid hoodlums to cause chaos.”

“Peaceful protests are lawful in Nigeria, however our fear is that the protest has the potential to stagnate the daily businesses of the poor in the country, and aggravate their sufferings instead of finding succour for them.”

“Protests mostly, if care is not taken, turn into chaos and bloody that usually result in the loss of innocent lives,”he said.

He cited The ENDSARS as one of the most recent scenario in Nigeria’s socio-political history, alleging that “many young men and women are still rotting in jails.”

The executive director condemned “the insensitivity of the Federal government to realize the pinnacle of the difficulty in the land, with more than 85 per cent of the citizens struggling to feed, while those in Government have not in any way shown empathy to the plights of the suffering citizens.

“In 2022, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics disclosed that about 130 million Nigerian citizens are in a multidimensional poverty, unfortunately neither Buhari nor Tinubu have practically put in place some workable measures to address the matter as a national crisis.”

He described measures adopted by the Federal Government as the post-fuel subsidy removal regime interventions as ineffective, temporary and inadequate.