AfriqueCAN:
Kano State mobilisers for the nationwide planned protest against bad governance have revealed their identities and rolled out demands and directives for the August 1, 2024, mass action.
At least 13 civil society organizations under the aegis of the Northern Chapter of the Nigeria Patriotic Front Movement (NPFM), led by Anas Adamu.
At a press conference on Tuesday evening in Kano, the group issued a communiqué declaring its intention to hold the protest as planned.
In the communiqué, the organisers listed their demands to the Nigerian government, which include reducing the pump price of petrol to between N160 and N200, reducing inflation on food, housing and electricity, lowering interest rates, reducing the cost of governance and ending insecurity in the country.
Their demands aside, they declared their intention to stage the protest as planned and issued directives accordingly.
According to the directives in a communiqué, participants should not carry any form of weapon; they should neither attempt to harass anybody nor engage in any form of violence. They are also forbidden from looting people’s property.
“Our protest is peaceful and consistent with rights enshrined in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“We call on the people of Kano State and Nigeria at large to come out in their numbers on the 1st of August and exercise their human rights to freely protest against bad governance at all levels of government in the country. And we call on foreign imperial actors to stay out of our domestic affairs.
“Let us ignore all paid agents profiting from the mass sufferings that are now trying to intimidate and persuade us from speaking out and protesting against unjust governance.
“If we do not protest now, how would the government take us seriously? It is time for us to stamp our authority as citizens so that those in power will not continue to take us for granted.
“This August 1 protest is just the first step. It will go on whether or not the powers that be like it,” the communiqué outlined.
The group insisted: “President Tinubu must listen to the voice of the people and change course now before it is too late.”
