Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, has affirmed that citizens have the right to protest and that no one can stop them from doing so.
Ngelale made this statement during an interview on the TVC programme “Politics on Sunday” with Femi Akande, addressing concerns about the government’s stance on the peaceful protests planned for August 1–10.
Ngelale emphasised that the Tinubu administration does not seek to dominate Nigerians but to serve them.
He stated, “Let me be clear: we are not in office to dominate our people; we are here to serve them.”
He further insisted that no part of the administration has the authority to prevent peaceful protests, asserting, “No one in our administration has the authority to deny Nigerians their right to peaceful protest.”
However, Ngelale also acknowledged concerns about the potential for the protests to be hijacked, similar to what occurred during the #EndSARS movement in 2020.
He said, “Such concerns are legitimate. We don’t operate in bad faith simply because a certain scenario unfolded several years ago under a different leadership in the country.
“Our view is that indeed there are lessons to be gleaned from what happened in 2020, but that does not mean that Nigerians who have lived through that experience, who understand that it is entirely possible for peaceful protest to be hijacked by such mischievous elements and maybe political forces in some cases, now mean that we cannot trust Nigerians to peacefully protest. I think Nigerians are very well aware of this fact.”