The hundreds of #EndBadGovernance protesters in Rivers State got angry on Thursday after Governor Siminalayi Fubara announced that he will provide them with stipends for bread and ‘pure water’ pending when government will combat hardship and hunger in the State.
The protesters, numbering over 2,000, had defied the morning rain to march from Port Harcourt Pleasure Park, located along Aba Road, Port Harcourt, to the Government House, to register their grievances over the hardship being experienced in the country.
But, addressing the protesters, made mostly of young men and women, Governor Fubara said: “Our youths, I know that you are angry; I agree with you that there is hunger. We agree but because we preach good governance, hunger will disappear very soon. Please, like I said, we are going to support you.
“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 force with the enemy of progress. I will support you, I will support you. Before you leave here, I will give you small thing, at least, to help you buy ‘pure water’ and bread.”
The protesters, however, responded immediately, telling the governor that they were not protesting for stipends but good governance and better standard of living.
Meanwhile, the governor expressed worry that a lot of people were planning to take advantage of the peaceful protest to cause crisis in the state.
He said: “You are here because you want a better Nigeria. But, like I said yesterday, I am one of you. I feel your pains and in our own government here, we are doing everything to make life easy for our people.
“But, you see, this particular protest you are doing now, our only worry is that a lot of people are planning to take advantage of this protest to destroy our state. That, we will not allow it. I want to thank you for being peaceful. I already know your problems and we will communicate your problems to the federal government.”
Meanwhile, two groups, the Ogoni Development and Democracy Forum (ODDF) and the African Indigenous Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development (AIFES), have declared their support for the nationwide protest against economic hardship in the country.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt on Thursday on behalf of the two groups, AIFES executive director, Legborsi Pyagbara, said Nigerians have never witnessed the kind of hardship they have experienced in the last 12 months, pointing out that citizens were about to lose the country if government fails to listen to yearning of the masses.
Pyagbara said: “Never in the history of our dear country have we witnessed the type of suffering that the Nigeria masses have had to contend with in the last 12 months. Never has hopelessness and disbelieve in our nation been so poignant than what we have seen now.
“Hope is the renewable energy that keeps one to believe in a future that will be bright. Once that hope is lost, the person is lost. We are about to lose Nigeria if the government do not respond to the yearnings and cries of the masses of our people. All indices of development have collapsed.
“Hunger is ravaging the land, people are dying because they cannot buy medicines, transportation has skyrocketed, going to school has become difficult and electricity collapse. The only way citizens can draw attention to their sufferings is to embark on peaceful protest.
“Protest is a legitimate right of citizens protected by international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended), among others.”
