Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has called on President Bola Tinubu to directly address the demands of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protesters.
In a statement released on Sunday, Falana criticized the president’s recent nationwide broadcast for failing to address the key concerns of the demonstrators.
The #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests, which began on August 1, have seen citizens taking to the streets to demand significant changes. Among their demands are the reinstatement of fuel subsidies, improvements in living standards, a reduction in the cost of governance, lowered electricity tariffs, and effective measures to tackle rising insecurity.
Falana emphasized that addressing corruption, especially within the oil sector, could negate the need for fuel subsidies.
He stated, “If the government takes the fight against corruption to oil dealers and crude oil is processed in government-owned refineries, there will be no basis for fuel subsidy, which is induced by the importation of petroleum products. A positive response to the key demands of the youths to review the protesters could make them review their actions. Insensitivity to their demands can only provoke continued action.”
He praised the protesters for bringing national attention to the severe challenges faced by millions of Nigerians. Falana also urged the government to release all detained protesters, asserting that they had committed no crimes.
Furthermore, Falana condemned the violence against peaceful protesters and expressed his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives during the demonstrations. He called on the federal and state governments to establish commissions of inquiry to hold accountable those responsible for the killings.
“We commiserate with the families of the patriots’ peaceful protesters that were killed and call on the Federal and State Governments to set up Commissions of Inquiry, which should include representatives of credible human rights organisations and the NBA to investigate the killings with a view to bringing to justice prosecute the reckless murderers in Police uniform and ensuring that.
“The family members of the deceased should be adequately compensated by the federal government. The victims of the barbarous police killings should be identified and celebrated as heroes and heroines of the struggle for the emancipation of the downtrodden Nigerian people. Participation in peaceful protests should never be criminalised in Nigeria.”
