The Executive Director, Citizens for Development and Education (CDE), Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya on Monday decried the alarming deteriorating economic condition of Nigerians, saying street protest isn’t the best option to address the problem.
Waiya who spoke in Kano against the backdrop of plans by yet to be identified group explained that “the low level of our civilization and exposure, as well as the conflicting sentiments around religion and ethnicity may not allow us to have a well coordinated protests”
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According to him, “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 a well coordinated protests which could translate into something positive.”
Ambassador Waiya who doubles as the
Chairman, Conference of Northern States Civil Society Networks 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.”
He said, “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.”
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He lamented that “protests mostly, if care is not taken, turns into chaos and bloodshed that usually results in the loss of innocent lives.
He cited The ENDSARS as one of the most recent scenario in Nigeria socio political history, as he alleged that “many young men and women are still rotting in jails.”
He condemned “the insensitivity of the Federal government to realize the pinnacle of the difficulty in the land, with more than 85% of the citizens struggling to feed, while those in Government have not in any way shown empathy to the plights of the suffering citizens”
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Ambassador Waiya revealed that “In 2022, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics disclosed that, about 130 million Nigerian citizens are in multidimensional poverty, unfortunately neither Buhari nor Tinubu have practically put in place some workable measures to address the matter as a national crisis.”
He stressed the need for the Federal Government to adopt some measures to cushion the effects of post fuel subsidy removal as the interventions were ineffective, temporary and inadequate.
