Despite the President Bola Tinubu’s nationwide address to the nation on Sunday, urging aggrieved Nigerians call off the #EndBadGovernance protests, the situation on ground confirms that the address has failed to impress protesters in Lagos, as they have vowed not to back down.
Their resolve to go on with the pretest follows a Sunday statement by the organisers signed by Hassan Taiwo, Ayoyinka Oni and Adegboyega Adeniji, on behalf of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Organising Committee, saying the address by President Bola Tinubu had yet to address their demands.
“We consider the president’s decision to address the nation an important victory for our movement,” the organizers said.
“Without our courage and resolve to dare the odds, even this acknowledgement would not have happened. So far, we have demonstrated that a President is not greater than the rest of the country,” the statement read.
The group criticised the President for what they described as a dual approach: offering dialogue while also demanding an end to the protests.
In his address on Sunday, Tinubu had assured that the efforts of his administration “will soon be visible and concrete for everyone to see, feel and enjoy.”
The President affirmed that his administration was ready to listen to and address the concerns of protesters, saying that he had heard their calls “loud and clear.”
Africa Health Report (AHR) gathered that protests have continued in Osun, Edo, Abuja and some other parts of the country, particularly in northern Nigeria where incidents of violence were recorded on the first day of the protests.
On Sunday, August 4, after President Tinubu had addressed the nation, some armed thugs disrupted the protest in Lagos, injuring some participants. Olajide Kazeem, one of the injured, accused the police of inaction during the attack.
The Lagos State government had previously described the protests as peaceful, but recent footage has also shown clashes between hoodlums and protesters
Some of protesters at Gani Fewehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, who spoke with our correspondent on Monday (today), said that the address was devoid of substance and vowed that nothing could make them stop their agitation.
