A leader from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lere Olayinka, is asking the government to stop worrying about what he calls a “fake” nationwide protest.
Olayinka, who used to be the Chief Press Secretary for Ekiti State’s former Governor Ayo Fayose, said on Friday that the government should focus on doing its job. He insisted that “no one is planning any protest.”
The DAILY POST says many young people in Nigeria are unhappy with the country’s poor economy and have said they will protest all over the country from August 1 to 10.
But President Bola Tinubu and the governors of the 36 states are working hard to make sure the protests don’t happen.
The president has asked the would-be protesters to be patient, saying his team is committed to solving the country’s problems and easing hardships.
However, Olayinka, who ran for the House of Representatives in the last election, said, “Protests don’t get planned with a month’s notice.” He added that “either the government is getting distracted by nothing or they are using this protest talk to distract Nigerians.”
He explained, “Protests happen suddenly in response to issues, not after months of planning. For example, in Kenya, people protested right after a new tax bill was passed. It didn’t take months to start; it happened right away.”
Olayinka believes the government should stop talking about a protest that nobody is really planning. He asked, “Before the government started talking about it, how many Nigerians even knew about any planned protest?”