*As Police Fire Tear Gas To Disperse Protesters At MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja
The chief economist at SPM Professionals, Paul Alaje, on Friday, faulted the trio ideas of petrol subsidy removal, hike in electricity tariff and naira devaluation by the President Bola Tinubu administration.
Alaje, who was a guest on Channels Television’s program, Politics Today, in Friday night, asked the Federal Government to listen to the cry of Nigerians amid the hardship and poverty in the country.
“The gain from the protest is for the government to hear the cry of the people and for the government to know that the people can also checkmate their actions,” he said.
He said Nigeria loses N350 billion daily from the ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests.
“But it comes with costs. When people are not able to move, like what happened yesterday, (Thursday ). At least the cost we are able to estimate is about N350 billion..”
Dialogue
Angry Nigerians defied warning by the authorities and took to the major cities on Friday for a second day to decry a severe cost of living crisis and bad governance.
According to reports, over a dozen people were killed when law enforcement forces fired on protesters on Thursday in several northern states including Borno, which was also among those to introduce a day-long curfew as part of efforts to curtail the unrest.
Organisers of the protests, which also took place in the commercial hub of Lagos and the capital Abuja, had called for Nigerians to show their displeasure at soaring food prices and three-decade high inflation over 10 days of demonstrations.
But Alaje believes that the Nigerian government and the organisers of the protests should come to a round table to resolve their differences.
He said the protests, if allowed to continue, would hurt the nation’s economy as many people were scared of opening their businesses.
“That is why it is important for the government and protesters to come together to have a dialogue or negotiation regarding where the future should be.
“It is not like protests happened everywhere but the fear of protests made a lot of people to close their shops. Many banks were shut, insurance companies were not functioning. So it has its own major effect,” Alaje added.
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Meanwhile, protests against hunger and hardship continued for its yjird say as Police authorities have fired tear gas at protesters at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja in a bid to disperse the demonstrators who had converged to press on with their demands.
The protesters, lesser than the number witnessed the previous days, had converged at the facility.
But after some hours, police officers fired tear gas canisters to disperse the protesters.
The MKO Abiola Stadium is the designated venue for the protests in the nation’s capital. A court order had restrained the #EndBadGovernance demonstrators from using other areas.
On Friday, tear gas canisters were also fired at the protesters when they gathered in the Berger roundabout area of the FCT.
But the rallies are continuing – although there is a reduction in the number of demonstrators – in other parts of the country. Lagos, Benin City in Edo State, and Port Harcourt in Rivers State are also witnessing protests.
