Broadcast: Tinubu out of touch with reality – Protesters

A cross-section of the #EndBadGovernance protesters, on Sunday, expressed disappointment with President Bola Tinubu’s assertions during his presid broadcast.

They specifically said the claims that they were being sponsored by failed politicians clearly showed that the President is currently out of touch with the reality on ground.

Speaking to journalists, some organisers of the protests said the President only justified state violence on protesters and journalists while dismissing the demands of the protesters.

Some of the organisers of the protest who spoke to journalists in Abuja Sunday evening at the briefing include the National Coordinator, Youth Rights Campaign, Micheal Lenin; Emiola Osifeso, representing the Take It Back Movement and Deji Adeyanju of Concerned Nigerians.

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Lenin said, “We wish to express our sadness and deep disappointment at the latest broadcast by President Tinubu which is his first address to the nation on the #EndBadGovernance protests, after over three weeks since Nigerians started mobilizing to take to the streets and after scores of dead protesters and assaulted journalists from the first three days of the protests.

“Many had requested that the President should just address the nation when the protest was being mobilized and when it started to escalate, but most of us did not know that the President would only justify state violence on protesters and journalists while dismissing the demands of the protesters whenever he decides to speak.

“This, plus the failed attempt to co-opt the progressive and radical language of the protests only shows how much President Tinubu is out of touch with the masses.”

On his part, Osifeso stated that the president’s claim that the protests are politically motivated showed a deep disconnection from the masses.

According to him, the protest was the lawful response of the Nigerian people to the failure of the government to address the hardship experienced by the citizens.

He said, “The claim by President Tinubu that our protests are driven by a political agenda to tear Nigeria apart is nothing but an attempt to call a dog a bad name so that he can easily hang it.

“It is a gross misrepresentation of the obvious facts that have become the economic reality of all Nigerians. These protests have been largely faceless and leaderless because it was a spontaneous response of Nigerians triggered by the deep multidimensional poverty, sharp inequality, barbarous corruption and gross human rights abuses that we see every day before us.

“The protest was the lawful response of the Nigerian people to the failure of the Tinubu government to address these endemic systemic issues after over 14 months in power.

“These protests were mobilised for by the flagrant extravagance of political office holders in Nigeria for the past 14 months while asking Nigerians to be patient in our hunger and hardship – which they claim to be our sacrifice for the nation.

“It is almost better for the President to have kept silent than to make this kind of broadcast in which he continued his attitude of ignoring the legitimate grievances of the Nigerian people, by delegitimizing our protests as politically-motivated.”

Omole Ibukun, Initiator, Creative Change Centre said the broadcast was filled with empty promises and vague assurances.

He said, “President Tinubu claimed to understand the pain and frustration driving our protests, yet the long broadcast was filled with empty promises and vague assurances.

“We must not forget that this same President and his ruling APC have deployed security forces including the Army, the Police, and the DSS to suppress the rights to dissent of protesters by using teargas on protesters, beating, injuring, arresting and killing scores of protesters.”

He stated that the economic achievements listed by the president were abstract and did not reflect the actual conditions in the country.

Ibukun said, “To further confirm that President Tinubu’s disconnection from the masses borders on psychopathy, the president started reeling out economic figures in the typical neoliberal attitude that prioritizes some abstract economic growth over the immediate welfare needs of the people.

“The broadcast further confirms how much the President is incapable of meeting the Nigerian masses at the point of their needs, but very capable of making policies that will benefit the private ‘investors’ of his elite clique at the expense of the public.

“The excess talks about economic growth and infrastructure development conveniently ignored the fact these benefits have not trickled down to the masses for 14 months now. This is why we are protesting.

They, however, concluded that the protest would continue massively on Monday to show that Nigerians are not joking with their demands which have not been addressed by the President.