Mr Omoyele Sowore is one of the leaders of the planned Oct 1 protest against hardship in the country. The former presidential candidate and activist, in this interview with Weekend Trust, insists on the action, saying it would hold across the country.
Can you tell us about the planned Oct 1 protest, what are the arrangements made so far?
Given the tendencies of the current government, I will not publicly announce the protest plans.
But I can tell you that there will be protests. I can also confirm to you that I will be out there on the protest lines, joining my voice to that of other Nigerian patriots, to denounce the anti-people policies of this government.
What shape will it take?
The protests will be peaceful and they will be national, across the country. The protests will hold across all parts of Nigeria because the scale of the devastation, hunger, insecurity, and hardship that this government has unleashed on Nigerians is national. I will emphasise again that these will be peaceful protests, as they’ve always been.
The last protests were peaceful, yet the government met the protesters with batons and bullets.
We will not be deterred, though. Our only weapon is truth, and no amount of force or violence will prevent us from speaking truth to power.
What is the level of preparedness on your part?
There aren’t any special preparations to be made. There will be protests simply because Nigerians continue to face a high level of hardship.
Between the last protest just two months ago and now, petrol prices have risen by almost N300 per litre. The naira has further devalued, and prices have increased in the market. Bandits have taken over and killed off entire communities. Floods are devastating our cities.
Under these circumstances, can anyone be surprised that the Nigerian people want to voice their displeasure with this government’s failure to address the issues affecting them?
We are prepared to come out to protest. We are determined to do so peacefully. I can assure you that thousands of voices will be raised in protest on October 1.
The pangs of hunger and groans of pain of the Nigerian people will not be drowned out by the government.
Are you not afraid, considering the fact that some of those who participated in the last protest are being picked up and detained while some persons are in prison?
Afraid of who, of what?
I have been harassed, tortured, arrested and imprisoned by tyrannical leaders for almost three decades. I was arrested, imprisoned and detained for five years by the Buhari government. Prison doesn’t scare me. And if the price to be paid for speaking up on behalf of the Nigerian people is to be locked up again, then so be it.
The worst they can do is to kill me. If they do that, I won’t be the first person to lay down his life for his people and for what he believes in.
You were held briefly by security operatives recently; do you think it was connected to your role in the last protest?
Of course. It was because of my role in the last protest. How many people are arrested and detained at the airport once they arrive into the country? It is part of their pattern of harassment and intimidation.
The police said they have not been notified of any protest; have you notified them? If not, when do you plan to do so?
The police are aware that there will be protests. They understand why there will be protests. After all, they are Nigerians as well. They go to the same markets as everyone else. Their children attend the same schools that have become unaffordable to the common person. They are suffering the exact effects of high inflation. They are the ones being shot at by bandits and terrorists.
The notice that the police need is that protests will happen all around them.
What are you doing to ensure it is peaceful?
We have continued to maintain that protests will be peaceful. The last one was peaceful. Yet the security agencies arrested unarmed people and shot at defenseless Nigerians.
It is the government that should commit to allowing Nigerians to protest peacefully.
What motivated this second protest, considering that one held only about two months ago?
The last protests were to call attention to the economic pains, insecurity and injustices in the land. Has anything improved? In fact they have become worse!
Inflation has gone up. Insecurity has increased. Our people are drowning in floods because the government failed to secure the dams. Bandits wiped out an entire village just a few weeks ago. Things have gotten worse for the Nigerian people. We protest because we are in pain, because that is the only constitutionally guaranteed right that we can exercise, because we want to draw attention to the sufferings of the Nigerian people, because silence might be mistaken for acquiescence, because we cannot keep silent in the face of our people’s suffering, and because it is the patriotic thing to do.
What can government do to avert it?
Simple. We have 15 demands but to make it easy for them to understand; let us condense it into 10 demands that touch on the economy, jobs, security and conditional reforms. They should address them immediately.
What specifically are you demanding from the government?
Release all prisoners from last demonstrations and all political prisoners, including Nnamdi Kanu; living wage for Nigerian workers; reverse removal of subsidy protections for the masses; urgently address banditry, terrorism and other security issues; introduce job creation programmes targeting the millions of unemployed youth; power sector and infrastructure investments to revitalise the economy; education sector reform; restructuring and constitutional reform; judicial sector reform and electoral reforms including diaspora voting.
Are you placing time limits for the implementation of these demands?
We demand action immediately. Every single one of these demands is urgent and deserves immediate attention.
What if the government does not implement within the time frame stated?
Let’s see what the government does first and we can then talk about what comes next. As long as people are in pain, they will continue to groan. As long as a wheel is not oiled it will creak. If the government fails to take the necessary actions then we should not be surprised if the Nigerian people continue to protest the insensitivity of their government.
I mean, think about it. Between the last protest and now the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government has purchased new planes—planes that were not needed—and that came at a humongous cost. Yet the rest of us are being told that things are hard and we should manage.
Half of Maiduguri has been devastated by floods because the government failed to secure the dams.
President Tinubu said the decisions taken by the government are necessary to revamp the economy and should be given time.
How does the arrest of innocent people benefit the economy? Our first demand is the immediate release of these political prisoners.
How does the removal of subsidy protections for the common man benefit Nigerians? We have seen petrol prices go from N197 per liter to N1,100 and Nigerians should wait? Wait for what? Wait until they are all dead from hunger and suffering?
Why should we wait before the government reverses its wicked policies on education? Tinubu and his co-travelers in government are all beneficiaries of free and high quality public education. Yet they are denying Nigerian youth the same benefits they enjoyed. Why should we wait before the government begins to address the problems of insecurity?
Why should we wait before workers are given a living wage? Afterall this government has continued on a buying spree – purchasing new bullet proof cars, new airplanes, yatchs and the like while telling us Nigeria is broke.
It took them just two weeks to pass a bill and change the national anthem. They’ve demonstrated a capacity to move fast on some issues. Now we need them to move with the same speed on these pressing matters. No. The wait is over. We demand action now.
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