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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Some civil societies on Monday stormed Osogbo, Osun State capital, in protest against hardship.
The Dialogue 360, Coalition for Revolution, Joint Action Force, Osun Civil Society Coalition and Federation of Informal Workers, and some youths, marched from the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park to Station Road, Old Garage, Oke-Fia, Alekuwodo and ended at the popular Ola-Iya junction.
They chanted anti-government songs and carried placards with several inscriptions such as: “Let the poor breathe,” “Stop stealing palliatives meant for the working poor,” “End Insecurity,” “We reject devaluation of Naira,” “Enough is enough,” “No to anti-people policies,” among others.
The protest was monitored by security operatives to ensure compliance with peaceful conduct.
The convener of Dialogue 365, Comrade Waheed Saka, tackled President Bola Tinubu, for distributing proceeds of oil subsidy removal through the governors who he said are not taking the dividend to the masses.
He said that the protest was to prepare the people ahead of the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) protest billed for Tuesday against the economic crisis in the country.
He warned that the ongoing protest may snowball into crisis if the government at all levels fails to address the agitation of Nigerians against the current hardship ravaging the country.
He said, “The essence of this protest is to mobilize the people for a bigger and larger protest that will be done nationwide, that will force the arms of government to do the right thing. We are not requesting too much, we are saying to fulfill your promise, that is not too much to ask from the government and the promise is not to make life difficult for the people or increase hardship on average Nigerians.
“That is not what President Bola Tinubu promised us. We understand that there are a lot of issues but we said don’t remove subsidies and give the money to governors. Governors over the years have not been able to manage their resources effectively, why are you taking off the relief of an average Nigerian and giving the money to governors to spend?
“That is not sustainable and now the devaluation of naira has led to an increase in the price of fuel because it is having a snowball effect on food and livelihood. President Tinubu should act now because he is already pushing our people to the precipice.
“We are saying act right, we are saying enough is enough because we can’t continue, year in and year out to talk about doing the right thing. We are saying enough of IMF and World Bank policies,” Saka said.
