Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and a former Education minister, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, have knocked President Bola Tinubu’s speech on the protest, stressing that he ignored the demands of the demonstrators.
While Atiku described the president’s speech as hollow and missing the mark, Ezekwesili said it failed to connect with angry citizens on the streets.
Decrying the death of protesters, the former education minister called on the president to immediately instruct the inspector general of Police and his men to “stop killing peaceful protesters now!”
President Tinubu made a live broadcast yesterday morning to quell the public protests against his administration’s performance. The protest which has entered Day 4 as of yesterday, had left in its trail killings, violence and destruction of property in various states.
Reacting to the speech however, Atiku, presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023, said the president neglected the pressing economic hardships that have besieged Nigerian families since the very beginning of his tenure.
He, in a signed statement by media aide, Paul Ibe, added that the address lacked credibility and failed to offer any immediate, tangible solutions to the Nigerian people.
Atiku urged the president and his team to own up to their failures over the past 14 months and abandon the absurd theory that the protests are orchestrated by the opposition.
“The opposition did not create the economic quagmire we find ourselves in; this disaster is solely the result of the Tinubu administration’s trial-and-error policies. It is high time they stopped the blame game and faced the reality of their failures,” he said.
On her part, Ezekwesili, who took to her X handle, said the speech read like a page from Tinubu’s party manifesto which terribly failed to connect to what citizens on the streets are angry and protesting about.
She added that the speech is a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and outline of convincing evidence-based actions that the president and his government will immediately take to address the priority #BadGovernance concerns.
“Your Speech was sadly again written out of a mindset that is focused on “getting back at our enemies”. Imaginary enemies at that! No true Leader has the luxury of having “enemies” among their Citizens. Not at all. A Public Leader becomes the Leader of ALL with a mind that does not think of any as their enemies.
“This is why it is ever unfortunate to see Nigerian public “Leaders” talk and behave like Losers on matters of public governance where they are expected to rally their ALL Citizens behind the common purpose of nationbuilding.
“It is nauseating to observe this recurrent innate unwillingness of Nigerian public leaders to admit responsibility for the demands of the same public leadership that they kill and maim citizens to assume.
“@officialABAT, Citizens know when they are being badly governed and from what one can see, Nigerians have now realized that they must collectively speak up and take action otherwise their self-obsessed rulers (and not leaders) will not pay them any heed at all.
“As we remember and pray for families of all our citizens mauled down or maimed for demanding an End to Bad Governance, let me call on you @officialABAT to immediately instruct the IG @PoliceNG and his men to “STOP KILLING PEACEFUL PROTESTERS NOW!”
“Also fish out all law enforcement personnel that have killed and maimed citizens and ensure they are sanctioned as a deterrence to their colleagues,” she noted.