As the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protest kicked off across the country on Thursday, major opposition parties have disagreed over the exercise.
Officials of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Labour Party, LP, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, stated their party’s positions on the protest in separate interviews with NewsNGR.
Angry Nigerians have taken to the streets to vent their anger over the rising cost of living in the country, a development which has been linked to policies introduced by the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Spokesman of the PDP, , in a telephone interview, told NewsNGR that the party had been harping on the issues outlined by the organisers of the protest.
According to him, the PDP had warned that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, would lead the country into the type of problems that prompted the protest.
Ologunagba said, “There is nothing in the demands tabled by the organisers of the protest that PDP had not said before now.
“We have warned that it will come to this. We warned that the country was gradually grinding to a halt.
“We have said that this government is impervious and insensitive.”
Also speaking with NewsNGR, LP spokesman Obiorah Ifoh said the party was in support of the protest.
He said “No power in the world can muzzle the pang of hunger.
“Nigerians have spoken and the protest defying all forms of intimidation tells you that Nigerians are no longer smiling. They are determined. All the elite conspiracy has failed. That is what I can say for now.”
However, the NNPP said it was not in support of the protest.
National Chairman of the NNPP, Agbo Major, said the timing of the protest is wrong.
Major also expressed reservations over what he described as religious and sectional sentiments surrounding the protest.
He said, “The timing is wrong. We don’t have any problem with protest because it is a way of demanding for action and accountability from leaders under a democratic government. But the timing of this protest is wrong. That is number one.
“Then, number two – the ethnic, religious and sectional face that this protest has been given worries us. Because we are in a secular state with multiple religions. This is a country that has diverse ethnicity and religions and anything that is built around religious lines is not too good for us.
“On one side the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is saying Christians should not go out, that it is a plan by Fulanis to take over the country. Then you go up north and you hear that this is this, this is that.
“So it’s worrisome. Our party is not in support of this. It is not a wrong idea but the timing is wrong.”
Major stressed that Nigerians need to, first of all, come together in unity.
“Until all of us as Nigerians agree that this is what we want irrespective of religious and cultural divides we will continue to have these problems. When our level of nationalism increases we will get there.
“Let us begin to see the country as our own first before we begin to think of ourselves as Igbo, as Hausa, as Yoruba, as Idoma, Igala etc.
“When we are united irrespective of religion, irrespective of ethnicity, we can fight a common cause. But in the case of this protest, we are not.”