PH Protesters To Tinubu: You’re Too Wicked

• In Bayelsa, It’s Solidarity Rally For Diri
• Calm In Uyo, Calabar

In most parts of the south-south, the residents chose to adopt the siddon-look approach on the first day of the nationwide protest, as shop owners and private businesses shut their doors in the early hours of the day, while monitoring developments in the state.

In Port Harcourt, protesters started showing up around 10am. They assembled at the pleasure part, along Aba Road, displaying Nigerian flags and some banners to show their readiness for the protest.

By noon, the tempo had gone up, with some of the protesting marching through Aba Road towards the Government House, raining curses on the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and describing him as a wicked leader.

They marched peacefully to the Government House where they were received by the state governor, Sim Fubara.

But around the Borokiri axis, there were reports of an attack on a woman hawking a popular local delicacy called ugba. The hoodlums were said to have descended on the woman, collected her goods, ate some and scattered the remaining on the floor before fleeing the area.

In Calabar and Uyo, there were no reports of any form of protests. Most of the residents however chose to remain indoors, not sure of what the situation may be.

Defying the rains in Port Harcourt, the protesting youths marched to the seat of power and were received by Fubara, who thanked them for their orderliness and refusing to allow those he called enemies of the state to hijack the protest.

While thanking them for the peaceful action, Fubara reassured them of his readiness to sustain the implementation of policies and programmes that will continue to make living better by the day for all residents in the State.

He acknowledged the realities of the current harsh economic conditions that have necessitated the nationwide protest, but insisted that it will be for a short time, given the commitment of President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to secure a better future for all Nigerians.

He said: “I want to thank you for being peaceful. I already know your problems, we will communicate them to the Federal Government. But you see, this particular protest that you are doing now, our only worry is that we know a lot of people are planning to take advantage of this protest to destroy our State. But, we will not allow it.

“It is not easy, but we know quite alright that very soon, everything will be well. Starting from our own State, everything will be well. What we just need is for you to support the government and its policies. Implementing policies, at the beginning, it must be harsh, but at the end, everything will be fine,” he said.

“We are going to make sure that we make life easy for you. Our youths, I agree with you that there is hunger, but because we preach good governance, we are committed to make hunger disappear very soon.

“I am not against your protest, but we will not support any violent protest. We will not support anything that will destroy our State. We will not join forces with the enemy of progress (to destabilise our State). I know, maybe, some elements have taken it upon themselves to want to make governance difficult in our State, penetrating through this means to create additional problems. We won’t allow it.

“But if it has to do with the (peaceful) protesters, I don’t have any fears. Their demands are germane. I can understand them: hardship, bad governance, high cost of living, rent, medical bills. But we are coming from somewhere very bad. And we must start from somewhere to make things right.

“The initial policies, at the centre, might not be friendly but at the end of it, if we are patient and tolerant, there is no way the policies will not yield positive results and development for our State,” he assured.

In Yenagoa, the youths chose to commended the Diri administration for his style of leadership and achievements. The youths led by Mr. Doubara Kumokou, while pledging the continuous support to the administration,  listed the governor’s achievements to include peace and security, prompt payment of salaries, employment of primary and secondary school teachers, appointment of 16 youths into the state executive council, construction of Glory Drive Phases 2 & 3, and prudent management of the state’s resources among several other projects.

In his response, the governor who was represented by his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, commended the youths for their peaceful disposition. He said his administration was youth-friendly as attested to by the number of youths appointed into the state cabinet.

His words: “This government has shown clearly, as against the comments of naysayers, that we are here for development. That was why the Sagbama-Ekeremor road initiated by the previous administration was completed. The second phase from Ekeremor to Agge is set to take off. That is going to be one of the legacy projects of this prosperity government.

“The Glory Drive Phase 2 from the Ecumenical Centre to Tombia has been completed. The third phase from Etegwe to Government House is going on aggressively. The Yenagoa outer ring road, initiated by the previous administration, has also been completed.

“Bayelsa State is the reference point for health insurance in Nigeria. Other states copy what we have done. We have employed 250 primary school teachers, 960 are almost being employed for our secondary schools. We are about to employ 1000 health workers. Programmes at the Niger Delta University have been accredited and the institution’s admission capacity increased from 5000 to 7500. We are not misusing any resources as claimed by failed politicians.

“We are trying to expand the horizon of our youths. The present cabinet of 29 commissioners has 16 youths. That shows that the youths are the nucleus of the prosperity administration.

“I enjoin you to ask other youths to be peaceful. Everybody has the right under section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution to assemble and protest, but that should not be at the detriment of the rights of others.

“While you have the right to protest, you do not have the right to obstruct traffic, destroy property or lynch anybody. If you do that, government will not fold its arms and allow irresponsible people do what they want. As you go about, you have the best wishes of the governor.”