He acknowledged that there is suffering in the country, but noted that it is not peculiar to Nigeria, adding that the current inflation is a global phenomenon.
Ooni of Ife, Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi has clarified that the traditional rulers in Nigeria are not against the upcoming nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests against hunger, misgovernance and economic hardship ravaging Nigeria.
Ogunwusi, who gave the clarification while featuring on Channels TV Politics Today on Tuesday maintained that protests against bad governance are the rights of Nigerians, noting that even President Bola Tinubu has acknowledged it.
He acknowledged that there is suffering in the country, but noted that it is not peculiar to Nigeria, adding that the current inflation is a global phenomenon.
He said, "We traditional rulers, we never said that people shouldn't go to the streets to demonstrate, it is their right. Even our political leaders confirmed that they can go, we met Mr President, myself and Sultan were the co-chair of the National Traditional Rulers Council, we met Mr President four, five days ago and we had a very good meeting.
"The agitation is real; we know we have a lot of suffering in the country and it's not only Nigeria. We have global inflation. It is everywhere, not only in Nigeria. If it is only Nigeria, yes we can now get more worried."
He noted that what traditional rulers are opposed to destruction of public assets, adding that "what we traditional rulers are after is do not let us destroy our country and ourselves”.
He said, “This is a global phenomenon. We should be very sensitive about it. We should be very mindful that we should love our country more than anything.
"We should focus on patriotism - true patriotism and also we that are owners of a country and all the people of Nigeria, we are also the problem. I did something in my community – Ife. We have a lot of middlemen and associations. I went out and I broke the ranks of all of them.
“You will not believe that prices in the market crashed more than 30 per cent within a day. We were able to sustain that over the cause of about a month within the community.”
He continued, "We people are the problem of ourselves. All the people that are agitating for demonstration and protest, where are their own children? Are they in public schools? We are all culprits. Maybe when the problem starts, they will look for a way to run away from this country.
"We do not have anywhere we are running to. We are the traditional rulers; we must ensure that public assets are not destroyed.”
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