#EndBadGovernance: Organisers of the protest are hungry Nigerians – Adenola
Eagle Square in Abuja is a public property and Wike has no choice than to allow “hungry Nigerian youths” demonstrate their displeasure on the facility.
The Director of Mobilisation of Take It Back Movement, Damilare Adenola, has said there is no going back on the proposed hardship protest, Adenola stated this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
The protest against economic hardship, which is gaining traction on social media, has been scheduled to be held across all states of the Federation as well as the FCT in August.
Prices of food and basic commodities have gone through the roof in the last months, as Nigerians battle one of the country’s worst inflation rates and economic crises sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex windows.
The youth leader had signed a letter addressed to the minister seeking the use of the facility. The letter was dated July 26, 2024, and was broadcast on social media platforms.
However, the FCT minister said on Saturday that he hadn’t received the letter.
The protest mobiliser said, “It is possible that the receipt of the letter is being delayed by most likely bureaucracy in government or the minister is likely being insincere about receiving the letter.
“If he (Wike) insists that he hasn’t received it, the alternative is that he was served by publication because many Nigerian ministries streamline what to receive or not. If he says he didn’t get it physically, then we could as well say that he was served by publication.
“If he says he wants it by Monday, we will serve him.”
“The truth is that the Eagle Square is a public property. When I saw the video of the minister, I was amazed because I saw the minister asking us to pay rent, pay security fees, and all that. My question to the minister is this: How does the minister expect a greater population of impoverished Nigerian youths who have no jobs to afford the exorbitant he is expecting us to pay? Adenola added
“We are going to be at the Eagle Square on August 1st,” he said.
Adenola further said, “It’s a double insult to tag the organisers of the protest as faceless”.
He said hunger is a great motivation for the protest and that the organisers of the protest need not be privileged Nigerians before they can express themselves.
“The organisers of the protest are hungry Nigerians; they are a host of unemployed Nigerians, they are a host of hopeless Nigerians who are roaming the streets. They are the out-of-school children spread across the country. These are the organisers of the protest and the greatest motivation of this #EndBadGovernance protest is hunger. People are really hungry,” he said.
