Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Barrister Nyesom Wike, has labelled the planned nationwide protest against the economic hardship currently rocking the country slated for August as political.
The minister stated this on Tuesday while addressing newsmen after an inspection of the abandoned 13-year-old Apo-Karshi Road project in the nation’s capital, Abuja, first awarded in 2011.
The minister said the planned protests were ‘political gimmicks’, masterminded by ‘political jobbers’ who sought to gain popularity, ahead of the 2027 elections, adding that the efforts of the administration would take some time to show.
It would be recalled that a section of Nigerians on social media have been mobilising to hold nationwide protests on August 1, 2024, with the hashtags #TinubuMustGo and #Revolution2024, over the economic hardships.
Wike called on citizens of the country to be patient, stating that the administration had only been in office for one year and was working to fix a lot of rot in the country.
He said, “The country was rotten; you know that the country was rotten, and then a government has just come to see what it can do, at least to move from where we are to a certain level. And you say that a miracle must be performed within one year?
“You are here now; we were talking about a contract that was awarded 13 good years ago. What has happened? Nothing.
“And now a government has come to say we will fix all these things, and we are too hasty to say that it must be done now. That is not possible; the protest is political.
“Everyone is not happy that there is hunger; everyone is not happy with the unemployment, but this unemployment was not started or was not created by this administration. The administration is just trying to put things together, which, of course, will take some time.
“And you know, I agree with Nigerians: when you’re hungry, you don’t want to listen to anything again because you’re hungry, but understand that somebody is trying to solve that problem of hunger.
“So let us not listen to political protests by political jobbers who just want to be popular. We are going to elections very soon, and these are gimmicks, political gimmicks.”
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