The Federal Government said on Wednesday that Nigerian citizens have constitutional rights to protest and that it was committed to upholding such rights while ensuring public order is maintained.
Mohammed Idris, minister of Information and National Orientation, who stated this when he received the Charismatic Bishop Conference on a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja, however, noted that the government weary that some people would want to hijack such protests and unleash violence on innocent Nigerians.
Some Nigerians are planning what they tagged “EndBadGovernance” nationwide protest from August 1 to 10 to draw the attention of the Nigerian government to hardship, hunger and high cost of living in the country, triggered by the May 29, 2023 announcement of fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu, without measures to mitigate its immediate harsh effects on the economy.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Africa’s most populous nation is grappling with an inflation rate of 34.19 percent due to the two-time devaluation of the naira and the removal of the petrol subsidy.
The inflationary trends have raised Nigeria’s interest rates by a combined 800 basis points from 18.75 percent last July to 26.75 percent as the central bank continues to deploy monetary tools to restore the battered economy.
According to Idris, while the government acknowledges the rights of Nigerians to engage in protests, it is equally committed to ensuring that these activities do not disrupt public order or violate the rights of others.
“The government of President Bola Tinubu believes in the freedom of everyone within the confines of the law to do what he thinks is right for him. Therefore, the president is not an opponent of protest of any kind but he is an opponent of violence and anything that will negatively hamper the wellbeing of Nigerians.
He believes and he has always been saying that within the tenets of democracy, you have every right to do whatever you want to do provided that right does not infringe on another person’s right.
“Why everybody is very cautious and very weary of this national protest is because we have seen what has happened around the world. We know that it’s almost impossible to hold this protest and then have peace at the end of the day. We cannot do that because some people are waiting to take the laws into their own hands,” he said.
