Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has reacted to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s national broadcast on the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protesters. Soyinka faulted Tinubu’s speech for not addressing the violent crackdown by security forces on protesters. The 90-year-old expressed concern over Tinubu’s omission of this critical issue, Vanguard reports......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
He said Tinubu’s speech didn’t address Police brutality against protesters and warned of potential revolution.
The statement partially reads:
“My primary concern, quite predictably, is the continuing deterioration of the state’s seizure of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell conspicuously short.
“Such short-changing of civic deserving, regrettably, goes to arm the security forces in the exercise of impunity and condemns the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.
“Live bullets as the state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest.
“It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that induced the late stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government.”
As reported by The Punch, Soyinka also urged security agencies to employ alternative methods of addressing civic protests and shun lethal means of dispersing protesters.
Police teargas protesters at Eagle Square, Lekki Toll-Gate
Meanwhile, Legit reported that protesters at Eagle Square in Abuja and the Lekki toll-gate area of Lagos state were chased away with teargas canisters.
Security operatives dispersed the hunger and economic protests, directing them to protest at the designated locations.
The 10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest over hunger and economic hardship commenced today, August 1.