By Silas John
The leader of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Otunba Wasiu Afolabi has sued for dialogue between the federal government and leaders of the August 1 protest as a platform to highlight on economic hardships Nigerians are going through in the face of President Bola Tinubu reforms.
OPC leader made the call on Tuesday i Lagos, while calling on the federal government to announce immediate reversal of electricity tariffs increament, reduction of food and fuel prices among others as goodwill gestures urging the protesters to remain non-violent and toe the path of dialogue.
“A hungry man is an angry man. The government must crash the price of food items, electricity and fuel for peace to reign and for people to know that the government cares about their welfare,” Afolabi said.
The Yoruba socio-cultural organisation also urged President Tinubu to immediately issue an Executive Order to open up all the country’s borders in the South-West and South-South in order for rapid inflow of food that would lower commodity prices.
The Yoruba sociocultural organization in a statement further encouraged the federal government to concentrate efforts on getting the nation’s refineries to produce domestic fuel in order to solve the problem of inadequate and expensive petroleum products supplies.
According to him, “if one man, Aliko Dangote can build a refinery in less than 10 years, how can ordinary maintenance of four full fledged and functional refineries become an impossible task since 1999, when civilians took over power; What is the mystery?
“Government must identify, expose and apprehend cabals and all the enemies making life unduly difficult for ordinary Nigerian citizens. This nation belongs to all of us and Nigerians must be able to enjoy their commonwealth.”
While calling for a reduction in the cost of governance, Otunba Afolabi stated that, “a situation where citizens are urged to tighten their belts; but politicians are living larger than life on public funds can only bring discontent and rebellion. Government must cost the cost of governance too. These are austere times and the leader must also adopt austerity measures”.
He appealed to the police to prevent the demonstrations from being hijacked by hoodlums, who could use the protest for looting and mayhem warning that, our leaders and protest organisers must not toe the line of Kenya, where demonstrations degenerated into a bloodbath with loss of lives and wanton destruction of property.
“Protestors and government have lost control in Kenya. We cannot afford to go that way. We have no other country but Nigeria; and we cannot allow a civil protest to spiral out of control”, he warned.
