I just read mouth agape with incredulity about the police warning against
\nplanned protest scheduled for February 5 and 6 by Nigerian popular singer
\nMr. Innocent Idibia aka Tuface.
\nIn advanced societies protest remains the only way to send messages to the
\nelected representatives. Those who hold elective posts are supposedly
\nanswerable to the electorates and the only way to reach them is via
\nprotests when a particular policy becomes unpopular with the people
\nespecially if it is such that brings hardship to the citizenry.
\nThere is no denying the fact today that the APC-led government has failed
\nNigerians who now wish a return to the good old days when the former
\nruling party held sway. Life then was much better with food aplenty to eat
\nbut today the reverse has become the case with prices of goods, services,
\nand food skyrocketing with every passing day.
\nFood is no more available in the Nigerian markets and wherever it is
\navailable the cost is prohibitive thus making it well-nigh impossible to
\nlive in that part of the globe. The resultant effect is crimes of varying
\ndegrees particularly violent ones.
\nThe best way to react to the obviously sad situation in advanced societies
\nis to embark on a protest, government’s reaction to such planned protests
\nis to provide security and send representatives to the venue and listen to
\nthe peoples’ grievances.
\nI am compelled to write this piece in reaction to what I just read in the
\ndailies that the Police in Abuja has issued a statement warning Tuface
\nagainst the planned protest or face the full wrath of the law.
\nWait a minute! Is that report true? If yes, who in the world gave the
\nwarning? Who is to do whose bidding? Is the people of Nigeria who elected
\na government which the police as an institution is answerable to or the
\npolice to do the peoples’ bidding? This sickens me to the stomach in no
\nsmall measure.
\nOver here in Europe and indeed in other advanced societies, there is no
\nlegislation against protest when the people have grievances to tender. No!
\nI have never seen it happen anywhere! That is the only way the people can
\ncommunicate their grievances to the powers-that-be especially as things
\ncontinue to deteriorate marvelously as it is in Nigeria today.
\nThere is frustration in the faces of many helpless Nigerians as a result
\nof the ineptitude and sheer incompetence of the government of the day.
\nEverything has nose-dived abysmally and has, in fact, assumed an alarming
\ncrescendo with many homes broken and torn apart.
\nSuicide hitherto unknown in Nigeria has taken the centre stage with no
\nhope in sight that things will ever get better as major economic policies
\ncontinue to fail marvelously coupled with damning reports from
\nsupranational institutions such as IMF, ADB and the UNICEF.
\nUnder the existing circumstances, the best way to register one’s
\ndispleasure is to put the government to a serious task and this is best
\ndone via protest to make their representatives sit up as it is done in the
\ncivilized world.
\nThe aggrieved and pauperized citizenry have neither resorted to violence
\nor arms struggle but a simple protest to get the attention of their
\nrepresentatives yet the regime in Abuja is reportedly saying ‘NO’ and have
\nin fact rounded plans to deploy tanks and guns in the streets like in
\ntotalitarian regimes \u00a0to bar Nigerians from protesting against the ills of
\nthe day which is their constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
\nI wish to call the regime in Abuja to order through this medium that they
\nare not lording over animals but civilized Homo Sapiens and that
\ntotalitarianism is no more fashionable does not exist again anywhere under
\nthe sun.
\nThe Executive Order on travel ban signed by President trump which did not
\ngo down well with many Americans sparked off a mass protest and American
\nsecurity forces did not roll out military tanks to subdue the people and
\nwas eventually upturned today by a federal judge.
\nIt is the right of Nigerians to protest the hard times and Buhari and his
\nmen should be told in no uncertain terms that Nigeria is now practising a
\nconstitutional democracy and could never be hushed into silence or subdued
\nby force of arms.
\nWhen the former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida was in power
\nNigerians came en masse to demonstrate against the Structural Adjustment
\nProgramme of that regime.
\nIt is time Nigeria learned, toed the line of the advanced world and
\nrespected civil rights. Security agencies must not allow themselves to be
\nused as pawns by a few disgruntled criminal elements in Abuja simply
\nbecause money has changed hands to the detriment of the hoi polloi.
\nI say yet again, it is high time the Police headquarters in Abuja reversed
\ntheir statement and allowed the planned protests to hold to enable the
\naggrieved citizenry speak to their elected representatives. Anything short
\nof this without doubt breeds or prepares ground for an imminent civil
\nrevolution.
\nAll in all, it is a thousand pities that Nigerian security operatives have
\nshamelessly become willing pawns in the hands of criminal elements in
\nAbuja who are bent solely on personal aggrandizement and this ought not to
\nbe after all.
\n*Iyoha John Darlington, a social activist, political analyst and public
\ncommentator on national and global issues wrote from Turin, Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I just read mouth agape with incredulity about the police warning against planned protest scheduled for February 5 and 6 by Nigerian popular singer Mr. Innocent Idibia aka Tuface. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n