The recent statement by the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Mr Bayo Onanuga, accusing Mr Peter Obi of engineering the planned August 1-10, 2024 nationwide protests shows that the memories of the 2023 presidential election are unsettling the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. Obi was LP’s presidential candidate during the poll.
The Chairman of Labour Party in Enugu West zone of Enugu State, Barrister Nnadume Offokansi, stated this in Enugu on Monday while answering questions.
According to him, “A bad worker always quarrels with his tools. The people know who they voted during the 2023 presidential election. The tension at the Aso Rock is because a thief knows where he stole from.
“When Obi sneezes, APC catches cold. If there is anybody who preaches peace in Nigeria, it is Peter Obi and the Obedient Movement. Obi believes in the rule of law. Onanuga is a day-dreamer for saying that Obi is engineering the protests. The slogan ‘grab, run with it’ is over, but the guilty conscience is still there. When they shoot themselves on the leg, they look for Obi.”
Offorkansi, a human rights lawyer, said the planned protests would be for the good of everybody, but advised the protesters to particularise what they want, otherwise it would be in vain.
Quoting him, “I don’t take Onanuga seriously. Nigerians are suffering. Our leaders are insensitive. They should not toil with Obi because he can save Nigeria.”
Also speaking, a social commentator, Dr Dele Maxwell Ugwuanyi, said, “Let the protesters identify specific harsh government policies and direct the protests to them.
“The beginning of the EndSARS protest was strategically good, but the exit was a disaster. The police Special Anti-Robbery Squad is over, but there are today many police taskforces that are more brutal than SARS.
“If the protests are targeted at floating of the naira, or the financial recklessness of our leaders, it should be stated. Again, it can also be state-based aimed at identifying specific rots in particular states, and tackling them.”
Ugwuanyi faulted the protesters for stating the dates for the protests, adding that “the government will find all means to make the exercise unsuccessful; the protests should have been spontaneous to make the impacts felt.”
Also, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Monday, reacted to a recent comment by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Chief Bayo Onanuga, on the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, concerning the nationwide protest billed for August 1 to 10, 2024.
Ohanaeze, in a release by its spokesman, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, frowned at Onanuga’s claims that the Obidients were “plotting to unseat President Bola Tinubu under the guise of protests”.
According Ogbonnia, “Several gullible undiscerning persons have joined Onanuga to state specifically that the Igbo are the propellers of the forthcoming nationwide protest.”
Ohanaeze, in the release, described the remarks by Onanuga “as true to type”, recalling that, “On March 19, 2023, Onanuga was reported by several news media to have issued a serious warning to the Igbo stating that ‘2023 will be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics’.”
Ogbonnia wrote, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo views Onanuga’s dispositions towards anything Igbo as unthoughtful, repugnant, inflammable, repugnant and full of deep-seated hate.”
Ohanaeze told Onanuga that “Nigerians of all persuasions, North, South, East and West are in pains of diverse forms: excruciating hardships, poverty, naira downward spiral, incessant kidnappings, banditry, farmers-herdsmen conflict, most terrifying insecurity, joblessness, rising food prices and cost of living challenges, and that the prevailing hardship in Nigeria is blind to ethnicity.”
The pan-Igbo group continued, “It is necessary to inform Onanuga that this is a time for the Presidency to initiate policies that will assuage the downtrodden, including Obidients.
“And to inform the Onanugas that issuing threats to masses, the hungry and angry, the vulnerable and indeed those who no longer fear any fall is the most inconceivable line of action for any government in a fragile society. Instead of broadening the minds to creative thinking and welfare programs for the masses, the Onanugas are chasing rat when the house is on fire.”
Ohanaeze Ndigbo reiterated its position with respect to the nationwide protest, stating that the group had directed the Igbo “not to join in the protest against President Bola Tinubu”.