The National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Shehu Gabam, has asked President Bola Tinubu to address the nation ahead of the planned August 1 nationwide hunger protests, under the hashtag #EndBadGovernanceinNigeria.
Gabam stated this during Thursday evening’s Politics Today programme on Channels Television.
Online reports that the planned protests, scheduled for August 1-10, 2024, have been a subject of discussion among Nigerians over the past week, although no group has claimed responsibility as the organisers of the protest.
The SDP chairman urged the President to address the nation, to clear misconceptions in the minds of the citizens, adding that the President should not continue to rely on “second layers” of dishing out information.
“What I expect this President to do as the number one citizen is to address the country. This is my first expectation. All other things are secondary layers. Let me tell you what it would do; people are angry, and so many perceptions have been created out there.
“He needs to clear this perception that no, Nigerians, I know what is going on, I have access to all your complaints, and I will address them. Relying on second layers of dishing out information at this critical time is not advisable for him.
“He is the number one stakeholder, he is the one to bear the brunt, he is the one who applied for the job, he is the one who said he’s going to correct the problems, so he needs to address the nation, beyond any other thing,” he said.
Gabam, while commending the interventions of security agencies and traditional rulers to dissuade Nigerians from staging the protest, however, urged the government to facilitate quick interventions by talking with identified sponsors of the protest.
“If they know the organisers, what they need to do as a government is a quick intervention. Sit down with them, dialogue with them, and find out what the problems are. And of course, if there are criminal elements that will hijack the process, the essence of having security all over the world is to create deterrence,” he said.
He added that his party would not be participating in the August 1 protest but would endorse protests that were “devoid of any act of violence, or anarchy, or killing, or barbarism”.
“We have drawn lines of our endorsements, in line with the provisions of the Constitution, where citizens are guaranteed to protest peacefully by disagreeing with the policies and programmes of the government”, he added.
