Organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protests against economic hardship say the nationwide rallies which entered the second day on Friday will continue till President Bola Tinubu addresses their demands.
Damilare Adenola, Director of Mobilisation of Take It Back Movement, a non-governmental organisation, stated this on Friday.
In an interesting twist, Adenola said human rights lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa does not speak for his group though the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had written security agencies to seek protection for them before the rallies.
The youth activist said his group won’t suspend the 10-day protests despite Adegboruwa’s pleas that the demonstrations be called off because fifth columnists have infiltrated the rallies to wreak havoc.
He said the protests might exceed 10 days depending on the response of the government.
Adenola said, “Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa is not our lawyer and he doesn’t speak for us. He might have presented himself as the solicitor but he is not hungry. He is a senior advocate of Nigeria who lives well. He is not hungry like the people taking over the streets.”
“We are waiting for the government to respond to us and address our demands. And until then, the protests continue,” he said, adding that though the demands of protesters have not been addressed, a statement has been made to the government of the day.
He said the protests have shown Nigerians they can hold their leaders accountable.
Asked whether the protests were being sponsored by anyone, he said the sponsors of these protests were hunger and economic deprivation.
Adenola said if the Federal Government is sincere and concerned with the plights of the people, the President would have addressed the demands of the protesters by now.
Propagated on social media, the nationwide protests against economic hardship started on Thursday, August 1, 2024, and have been scheduled to stretch till August 10 across all states of the Federation as well as the nation’s capital Abuja.