Mohammed Shosanya
Human rights lawyer,Mike Ozekhome, has said that the ongoing protests against misgovernance in the country,represent genuine agitation on the part of Nigerian youths.
The protests,he maintained are not sponsored by any group with subterranean interest in the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Ozekhome expressed this in a statement in reaction to the Sunday’s national address of President Tinubu,wherein hr accused political opponents of his administration.
He said:”These are not sponsored protests.They are genuine outpouring of grief,frustration, anger, hunger,melancholy, hopelessness, haplessness and joblessness by the ignored and denied Nigerian youths who appear not to have a tomorrow even after their yesterday and today have already been mindlessly stolen by rapacious elites and state captors who control the levers of power all different levels of government.
“The rage is not about a mirage or mere supposition; the blind can see; the lame can walk; the numb can feel: and the deaf can hear the grinding poverty and abject penury ravaging the land”.
The human rights lawyer commended the President for employing decent language,exhibiting understanding of the litany of problem besetting Nigeria and the empathy required by a president to address the urgent demands.
He looked apparently sober and pensive while addressing beleaguered Nigerians as “my fellow Nigerians”, Ozekhome noted in the statement made available to Premium News on Sunday.
According to him,the President veered off completely in situating the current reality in the country and the direction of his administration in his address to the nation.
He added:”However, in terms of measurable panacea and solutions to balm open wounds,assuage bruised egos and dashed hopes,or placate angry and protesting Nigerians who are daily suffering and groaning in the midst of government inertia,wastes, big government, big spending, opulent and primitive display of vulgar wealth by government officials,endless borrowing, white elephant projects, yatch,plane, SUVs, endless trips abroad, yawning leakages and official corruption, both apparent,real,visible and palpable,he scores miserably low.
“The speech was long on promises of a better tomorrow without demonstrating how this Eldorado will manifest.What will the youth take home after days of rage, tens of deaths, injuries, mental,physical, psychological and psychical lacerations and trauma, hunger, self-denial, brutality and high-handedness by state security agencies,I do not know. Or do you?”.
He advised that the government must stop blame game , go back to the drawing board and dare think without the box,not merely outside the box.
He added that,blaming the Muhammadu Buhari government of which this same APC government is but a mere offshoot and successor is most illogical, indecent and inelegant.
He said:”It insults our collective intelligence.It is like cutting one’s nose to spite his face; it amounts to dipping one’s finger in one’s anus and smelling it. You will not expect to perceive Christian Dior,Gucci, Armani,Hugo,Versace or Chanel fragrances.It insults our collective intelligence.
“President Tinubu still has a chance to save Nigeria of what remains of a groggy, tottering, fumbling,dwadlimg and near crumbling country the verge of imminent precipice. All hope is still not lost if he employs and deploys the right instruments of statecraft”.
