President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday summoned an emergency Security Council meeting for the first time, since the #EndSARS protests began, about two weeks ago, amidst global condemnations of poor government handling of the protests, nationwide.
The meeting came amidst global uproar against the President’s silence on the killing of protesters in Lagos which had led to the looting and destruction of public properties, which analysts has hinged on leadership trust deficits
This is also as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) also on Thursday said it has been meeting to find lasting solutions that would end the ongoing protests and demands being made by the youths across the country.
APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Nabena Yekini told BusinessDay that the ruling party is also making efforts to take the protesters off the streets for normalcy to return before implementing the demands of the protesters.
“We have been discussing, we have been on it. We are still on it to make sure we clear the streets for businesses to come back normal before you can implement anything. You can not implement anything to work the way things are now. The youths have already given the President their demands but for any thing to work we must make sure everything comes back to normal in the country.
“We have been meeting. We had the first meeting yesterday. The President is making all necessary efforts to make sure that everything comes back to normal even the people protesting will that he is a man of his words”, he stated.
The deafening silence on the ongoing nationwide protest that engulfed the country for the past two weeks is viewed by analysts as a confirmation of leadership trust deficit and wide gap between the President,the young people and the governed.
Some of then who spoke to BusinessDay on Thursday said the opportunity cost of the President’s silence is already being felt in the wanton damage of lives and properties in different parts of the country,as the protest spiralled out of control.
Chijioke Ekechukwu,a former director general of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry,i his response to the President’s overwhelming silence amidst the nationwide protests said the President must win back leadership trust and speak to the people.
“Leadership requires that prompt response when there is need to take such responsibility. The silence of the President shows that lack of leadership. If he had reacted earlier than now,the extent of destructions and lives lost wouldn’t have been.”
“Keeping quite means total disregard for protesting youths and dis regards for the entire country and obviously shows lack of responsibility and leadership.
“The President needs to articulate the agitations of youths and take adequate response and let their be leadership trust that can win back people’s confidence and take major actions.
David Ugolor,a Civil Liberty Organisation,CLO and the Executive Director African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ expert told BusinessDay that President Buhari’s silence is unacceptable and condemnable.
“Leadership is all about taking responsibility and what we expect at this moment is for Buhari to rise up to provide solutions that will signal to the youth that the Government will continue to address the issues raised in endsars campaign.”
Monday Osasah, the Acting Executice Director,African Centre for Leadership,Strategy and Development said the silence of the president at a time like this comes gives reason for some ominous interpretation being a Commander in Chief.
“It is alleged that what happened may not have happened without his knowledge. But right now, he has the option of proving the generality of the public right or wrong by speaking out and punishing those responsible for the shooting spree on armless protesters.
Osasa said:”The action has made Nigeria a laughing stuck amongst the Comity of nations, and has put Nigeria in a very precarious situation.
“I recommend therefore that the President should listen to the different voices asking him to address the nation as without that the country will continually be in a stalemate.
The President’s silence is said to have added credence to the alleged government recruitment of some members of the Miyetti- Allah group to attack protesters.
The National President, Meyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani Socio-cultural Association, Adulahi Bodejo, had in a statement in Abuja, on Monday, gave ethnic and regional coloration to these protests, when he alleged that “ some people from certain regions are trying to intimidate the North to give up its rights to rule beyond 2023”
A Constitutional expert, Babatunde Adebiyi who noted that the “ silence is synonymous to consent” , however praised the protesters for operating beyond the barriers of ethnicity and religion.
“ As you may have well noticed , these young men and women are teaching us lessons, by moving above all fault lines”
Adebiyi however described as unfortunate, the infiltration of the protesters by some criminals who took advantage of the protests to burn and loot properties.
He advice President Buhari to institute a public enquiry to unravel the identity of those who killed the innocent protesters at the Lekki toll gate
The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), also known as “Shiites” blamed the President for the ceaseless looting and arson that engulfed Lagos State and other parts of the country on Wednesday, saying the looting and arson were triggered by the deployment of soldiers to kill peaceful #ENDSARS protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on Tuesday.
The IMN spokesman, Ibraheem Musa, who condemned the Lekki shooting, told BusinessDay on Thursday that ” if the army was not sent to shoot protesters, probably the hoodlums might not have found a way of getting into the protest because the protests were peaceful initially.”
He said further, ” we really condemned the Lekki shooting in the sense that it is reminiscent of what happened to us. What happened in Lekki is a small percentage of what happened to us. It is the same issue of the military being used to kill unarmed Nigerian citizens. So, it is condemnable and whatever happens after that should be blamed on the Federal Government.”
He said that the IMN will continue to side with peaceful protesters who are making legitimate demands adding that it is within their democratic rights to do so even as he called on the Government to probe the army officers who carried out the massacre and court-martial them.
He lamented that since a judicial panel of inquiry into the killings of nearly 1,000 Shiite members by the military in December 2015, recommended that the military officers who conducted the killings be court-martialled, nothing has been done up till now.
The Shiites have in the last five years been battling with security agencies clamouring for the release of their leader, Ibraheem Elzakzaky, who is still in detention.
