The Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) have disowned any claim or link to the planned nationwide protest #endbadgovernance scheduled for 01 August.
The ACF National Chairman Mamman Mike Osuman said the indices that track human progress, including poverty, illiteracy, health, and security of life and property, tend to place the North at the back. He dissociated the group from the proposed protest, saying that it was ill-timed and counter-productive.
The ACF chair spoke during a meeting with the Kaduna State governor. Sani urged Northerners to shun what he described as toxic politics and join hands to pull the region back from the brink.
More so, Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has cautioned Northern youths to steer clear of the protests – advising them to reflect on insecurity, which has altered regional development, instead of embarking on protests.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, maintained that the people of Southeast will not participate in the protest. Ohanaeze said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, that Nigerians should understand that the current economic situation will not last forever. According to the group, “tough times never last, but tough people do.”
The group addressesd a remark by the special adviser to the president on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, that “the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi and that Obi “should be held responsible for whatever crisis that emanates from the protest.”
Ohanaeze also objected to Onanuga’s remark that Obidients are “plotting to unseat President Bola Tinubu under the guise of protests,” thereby conveying the impression that “the Igbo are the propellers of the forthcoming nationwide protest.”
