Day 10 #EndBadGovernance protest: Organisers threaten one-million-man march
Protesters fighting legitimate course – Obasanjo
The Take It Back Movement, one of the key organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protest, has scheduled today for a one-millionman march across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja to climax the 10-day mass action.
National Coordinator of the movement, Sanyaolu Juwon, stated this in a statement in Abuja late Thursday.
He said, “The Take It Back Movement (TIB), side-byside with other organisers and organisations will on August 10, lead a monumental one-millionman protest in each of the 36 states of Nigeria and the Federal Capital
Territory, FCT, Abuja.
“This event will mark a critical juncture in our nationwide EndBadGovernanceInNigeria campaign, which began on August 1, 2024.
“It started as a planned 10-day protest but has evolved into a sustained and widespread movement, drawing participants from every corner of Nigeria and the diaspora.”
Weekend Trust reports that the protest which aimed at drawing the attention of the governments at all levels to the hardship bedevilling the citizens, commenced on August 1 and is expected to end on Saturday, August 10.
Although the protest was hijacked by criminal elements, the exercise recorded large turnout across the country, especially in the northern states.
Despite the appeal by President Bola Tinubu in a nationwide broadcast on Sunday, asking the protesters to back down and give his administration more time, the protest had continued in Abuja, Rivers, Lagos and some other parts of the country.
Meanwhile, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the Nigerian youths participating in the ongoing nationwide protests tagged #EndBadGovernance are fighting for a legitimate course and they deserve a listening ear.
“What the youth (protesters) are demanding are very legitimate and should be listened to or why should they be denied what rightfully belongs to them?
“They are frustrated, they are hungry, they are angry, they are unemployed, they deserve to be given listening ears,” Obasanjo said.
Obasanjo spoke yesterday at his residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State, while receiving six members of the House of Representatives who are co-sponsors of bills on a single-term of six year rotational presidency between the North and the South as well as rotation of governorship slot among the three senatorial districts of each of the 36 states.
The legislators were led by Ugochinyere Ikenga representing Ideato North and Ideato South Federal Constituency of Imo State.
In his remarks, Obasanjo regretted that successive administrations have not built on the foundation he laid while he was in power, saying that this has also caused a lot of drawbacks for the country.
He said “More than anything else, such as changing our system of government, moving to a single term of six or four years; we must change our ways of doing things in this country; we must decarbonise our brains; we must change our mentality and characters.
“How I wish that the succeeding governments are building on the foundation we laid even if not so fast as one would have wanted it, but sadly the blocks we put there are even being removed.”
Obasanjo said what Nigeria needs is to get leadership right.
“The point is that if we get this right in about two and half years, we shall get some of the challenges behind us and in about 10 years, we will have gotten a solid foundation and in about 25 years we will be there,” he added.