We share pains of Nigerians but protest not best option – CSO scribe, Waiya

The Executive Director, Citizens for Development and Education, CDE, Ibrahim Waiya on Monday decried the alarming deterioration of the economic fortunes of Nigerians, saying a street protest is not the best option to address the quagmire.

Waiya who spoke in Kano against the backdrop of plans by a yet-to-be-identified group to stage, protests explained that “the low level of civilization and exposure in Nigeria, as well the conflicting sentiments around religion and ethnicity may not allow well-coordinated protests”

He stressed, “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 well-coordinated protests that can translate into something positive.”

Waiya who also doubles as the Chairman of the Conference of Northern States Civil Society Networks said, “We are in support of the peaceful protest to show our anger, we are, however, sceptical 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.”

He cited the ENDSARS protest as one of the most recent scenarios in Nigeria’s history, as he alleged that “many young men and women are still rotting in jail.”

He condemned “the insensitivity of the Federal government, where more than 85% of the citizens struggle to feed while those in government have not in any way shown empathy to the plights of the suffering citizens”

“In 2022, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics disclosed that about 130 million Nigerian citizens are in multidimensional poverty, unfortunately, neither Buhari nor Tinubu government have practically put in place some workable measures to address the matter as a national crisis.”

He stressed that “Some measures adopted by the Federal Government as the post fuel subsidy removal regime interventions were ineffective, temporary and inadequate.”