At least nine civil society organisations including Joint Action Front, PRP Vanguard, Yoruba Revolutionary Movement and six others have said the kick-off point of the August 1 End Bad Governance Protest in Lagos will be Ikeja Under Bridge.
The organisers who addressed a press conference on Tuesday in Lagos said despite the threat and intimidation, the End Bad Governance Protest would commence from 7 am at the Ikeja Under Bridge as the take-off point.
Hassan Taiwo Soweto who read the text of the press statement on behalf of the coalition, including civil societies, socialist and radical groups, said in the last three weeks, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his aides and security agencies and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), have embarked on the futile attempt to disparage and demonise the protest.
He said: “They have called us all kinds of unprintable names. They have threatened all sorts of violence and personal harm against us. Their paid agents have threatened to attack us and kill us if we dare come out including the threat to deploy the ‘oro cult’ against protesters in Lagos. They have accused us of several crimes, including treason and of being sponsored.
“They have floated groups to pull out of a protest they were never part of in the first place. They have even gone ahead in the last few days to weaponise poverty by mobilizing the poor and most vulnerable section of society with a token cup of rice and a few naira notes to participate in state-sponsored protests to counter our protest. All the while they are doing this, the police and security agencies have either watched in silence or egged them on. The Department of State Services (DSS) on its own part, that shadowy instrument of coercion that should have no place in real democracy, has been most brazen in its contrived lies alluding to so-called foreign mercenaries coming to infiltrate protest and in its bugging of activist phones, infiltration, hostile espionage and other covert operations to sabotage the protest.”
Soweto said what was at stake was not whether it was right or not to protest, but whether the Nigerian people were free or were slaves in their own country because only a slave is shed off the right to freedom of expression and assembly.
He added: “In the midst of all these, one thing they have not had the courage to do is to address the fundamental reason why this protest has been called, which is the anti-poor and neo-liberal capitalist policies of Tinubu administration that have thrown the majority of Nigerians, including the youth, the unemployed, the working class, artisans, the traders and the poor masses into an unprecedented level of hunger and hardship.
“Since May 29 last year when President Tinubu announced without any democratic consultation or debate with the Nigerian people, the ill thought, wicked and anti-poor international Monetary Fund-inspired policy of fuel subsidy removal, our lives as we know it have been further transformed for the worse.”
He then listed the demands of the protesters including;
1 Reversal of fuel price to pre-May29, 2023 level
2. Reversal of electricity tariff
3. End hardship and hunger
4. Recall all victimized activists, free all #EndSARS detainees
5. End school fee hike. Give study grants, not loans
6. Place all political office holders on minimum wage
7. Reverse all anti-poor and neo-liberal capitalist policies
8. Fix public refineries and build new ones under democratic workers’ control and management
9. Reverse all privatization of public enterprises and place them under democratic control management.
10. End Insecurity, police brutality and kidnapping
11. No to illegal demolition/force eviction
12. Creation of decent jobs and payment of unemployment benefits to those unemployed.
13. Prosecute all corrupt politicians and return all stolen wealth
14. End security vote
15. Free quality health care for all.
16. End to attacks on press freedom. Release all political detainees including journalists and bloggers.
The press statement was signed by
1) Joint Action Front
2) PRP Vanguard
3) Yoruba Revolutionary Movement
4) Amilcar Cabral Ideological School Movement
5) Youth Rights Campaign
6) Movement for African Emancipation
7) Education Rights Concern
8) Precision, Electrical, and Related Equipment Senior Staff Association
9) Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights