The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) have criticised the move to stop a nationwide peaceful
protest spearheaded by a pop musician, Tuface Idibia, billed to take
place this weekend.
The protest rally which is being planned to
take place simultaneously in some major cities across the country,
including Lagos State, Abuja and Asaba, is seen as an avenue provided by
the organisers to enable Nigerians voice out their worries over
hardship in the land.
However, against the background of reports
yesterday stating that police authorities in Lagos had warned that it
might not allow the protest to hold, both the APC and PDP were in
agreement on opposing the police move, saying it would amount to a
breach of the constitution to carry out such an order.
Speaking in
an interview, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam
Bolaji Abdulahi, said there was nothing wrong in people holding peaceful
protest under a democracy.
He said the party was not opposed to
any form of expression of opposing view point by anyone so far it is
done in a peaceful and non-violent manner and did not constitute
disruption of public peace.
“For us, it is about the constitution
of Nigeria, Tuface or any other citizen of the country has the right to
stage a peaceful protest, that is the position of our constitution. We
as a party will not be part of anything that will abridge or take away
the right of citizens to protest, especially in a democracy.
The
APC spokesman justified the party’s position by saying it would be wrong
to stifle peaceful protest since APC benefitted from such citizen’s
right to expression of dissent during its days as opposition party.
“We
have as a party benefited greatly from citizen’s right to express their
democratic rights and our being in government is not going to change
that orientation to promote the liberties and right of citizen hold
dessenting views,” he said.
On what the party would be advising
the security forces and the organisers of the protest to do under the
circumstances, the party spokesman said: “Well I don’t know exactly what
the police are saying about banning the protest. I think what the
police will probably be saying is that they are concerned about the
issue of safety and threat to lives and property in the course of the
protest.
“There are always fears that hoodlums might hijack a
peaceful protest and use the opportunity to perpetrate violence on
innocent citizens. I suspect this might be the consideration of the
police. But this should not be good enough reason to deny citizens the
full enjoyment of their constitutional rights however they wish to
express them.”
Speaking
on the motive of such protests and whether it would impact negatively
on the image of the federal government controlled by his party,
Abdullahi said: “We believe that protests are a form of feedback,
although we may not agree with the grievances but at same time, it may
be an opportunity for us to communicate more about what we are doing
that the citizens may have had sufficient information on. It may an
opportunity for us to give better clarification on what our government
is doing.
But fundamentally, it will be a form of feedback for us
to do more in citizen’s engagement and enlightenment and to focus more
on our commitment to the promises we made to our people. I do not see it
as anything that is antithetical to our democracy.
But on its part, the PDP described the reported ban of the protest as an undemocratic act which should be resisted.
The
PDP spokesman, Dayo Adeyeye, who spoke on the matter, urged the
protesters to defy any such order by the police, adding that stopping
people for engaging in peacefully assembly is not only undemocratic but
against the spirit and letters of the country’s constitution.
“It
is illegal and very undemocratic, the people have the right to protest,
the freedom of assembly and freedom to protest are two strong
ingredients of a democracy. In America, people have been protesting
everywhere and nobody has made any effort to curtail it or to ban them
or prevent them from holding.
“People have the rights to peaceful
assembly and people had the right to protest under the previous regimes
of Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Olusegun
Obasanjo, how could these people now want to stop peaceful protest.
These were the same people organising protests in those days against PDP
governments.
“This shows clearly that we are now under a
dictatorial regime. It is an illegal ban and I will urge the organisers
of the protest to go ahead with it and defy the police ban because it is
wrong.”
In an effort to shore up, the federal government
yesterday approved a new tax regime, just as it announced its intention
to raise taxes on luxury goods.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) also approved the pursuit of an initiative to force down the prices of food in the country.
But
the PDP spokesman reacted to the move to force down food prices as
attempt to bring back an archaic economic policy that didn’t work many
years ago.
“This is part of the archaic economic policies of
President Muhammadu Buhari that he implemented during his first time in
power as a military man. We are back to that again. It never worked and
can never work.
“We are not in a communist country, prices of
goods should be determined by demand and supply, market forces simple.
You cannot force it, there is no way to force it. So the Minister of
Finance should be better educated, it will not work and the policy is
dead on arrival. You cannot force me to sell at prices below my cost
price,” he said.
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