Nigeria experienced a 10-day wave of nationwide protests, tagged #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria, which concluded on August 10.
Omoyele Sowore, the convener of the #RevolutionNow movement, has dismissed the claim by President Bola Tinubu's administration that the recent nationwide protests were aimed at regime change, calling it a fabrication.
However, Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, warned that nothing can prevent a civil uprising in the country, implying that the protests may be a precursor to more widespread unrest.
Nigeria experienced a 10-day wave of nationwide protests, tagged #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria, which concluded on August 10.
However, the authorities have since suggested that the protests aimed to overthrow President Tinubu's government, particularly after the appearance of Russian flags.
In post on his X account on Friday, Sowore countered this claim, observing that certain members of the ruling All Progressives Congress have recklessly declared that the protests were orchestrated for the purpose of ‘regime change’.
Sowore criticised Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani for his statement in a TVC interview, alleging that significant resources were invested in the protests to undermine Nigeria's democracy and replicate the military coups that toppled democratically elected governments in Niger Republic, Mali, and Burkina Faso.
Sowore knocked the governor's claim, implying it was unfounded and misleading.
In the interview, Sani said, “They reminded them of what happened in Niger, what happened in Burkina Faso, what happened in Mali. They made them understand, come out, raise the flag of Russia and also go out to vandalise shops, loot some businesses and create chaos.
“Certainly, there will be change of government in Nigeria. So for me, people planned, organised with a lot of resources to cause anarchy in the country and attack democracy.”
Sowore, however, countered this, saying it is tactic by the government to hunt down its perceived enemies.
He said, “Since the end of the magically successful #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria revolt, which lasted ten solid days despite all odds, oddities, and obstacles thrown its way, some elements of the ruling All Progressives Congress All Progressives (@OfficialAPCNg) party of Nigeria have opportunistically thrown caution to the wind and proclaimed that the protests were organized for “regime change.”
“Although it is up to the Nigerian people, like other climes around the world, to determine when to discard any set of people in power if they continue to collaborate aggressively and coercively to hurt their essence and existence.
“This falsehood must be placed squeaky clearly where it belongs, the regime of Bola Tinubu ONLY wanted to blackball Nigerians into a state of dereliction by using the nationwide success of the revolt against hunger orchestrated by his government policies to permanently and strategically shut down the CIVIC SPACE in Nigeria.
“Therefore, it was not a mistake that as soon as the protests were barely over, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, spuriously introduced a bill known as the “COUNTER-SUBVERSION BILL” specifically aimed at erasing and degrading Nigerians' rights to assemble, express, and organize freely against bad governance.
“As expected, that bill died a natural death a few hours after Nigerians knew of it.
“A video in circulation of an interview granted by Kaduna State Governor, @ubasanius tells of the sorry state of affairs of our country.
“In an attempt to revise history, he claimed that as a former activist, he organised several protests, but that they were not aimed at toppling the government. He curiously also mentioned Senator Shehu Sani, but these are lies aimed at obfuscating his real intentions.
“The truth is that almost all Nigerian regimes resort to using “treason, subversion and now cybercrime” as tools for suppressing dissent as soon as the public rises to challenge their policies.
“It has become the standard charade of blackmail. Even Senator Shehu Sani was framed by the military and tried and sentenced for coup plotting and thrown into jail for an offence he never committed.”
According to the activist, the “Tinubu regime is now toeing the same path, arresting and trying poor innocent tailors over charges they’re plotting regime change”.
“It is a new low and will fail woefully like others before it.
He continues, “Let’s be clear about the intention of the Tinubu regime; they want to begin an unprecedented hunting down of regime opponents using a familiar but worn-out technique accusing every Tom, Dick and Harry of regime change offences.
“They have already commenced with journalists, activists, artisans and even the labour movement @NLCHeadquarters several persons are in detention, offices and homes arbitrarily raided around Nigeria as we speak in Kano, Kaduna, Abuja, Borno and several places.”
“But like others before it, these efforts have failed even before they commenced,” he added.
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