President Bola Tinubu’s one-year in office has been challenging for many Nigerians, as inflation has consistently increased. The president has swung into action as he announced the removal of the fuel subsidies on the day of his inauguration and floated the currency.
The two moves fronted Tinubu’s economic reform. He also took several steps in which he appealed to Nigerians to endure the pain and said that things would soon get better. However, the cost of food continued to multiply, leading to the call for a hunger protest.
According to the protest organizers, the planned actions will take place from August 1 to 10 across the country. Some presidential candidates who contested against President Tinubu in the 2023 election have come out to endorse the protest.
Some of them are listed below:
Atiku Abubakar of PDP
Atiku Abubakar, former vice president and PDP presidential candidate, has expressed support for the planned nationwide protests against hunger and hardship in Nigeria. He criticized the government’s attempt to suppress the protests, calling it an exercise in futility.
Atiku emphasized that the right to protest is enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution, citing Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees the right to peaceful assembly and association. He accused President Tinubu and the APC of being hypocrites, as they led protests in 2012.
Atiku called on the government to ensure a safe and secure environment for citizens to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights to peaceful protest. He urged the government to respect citizens’ rights and address the issues driving the protests rather than try to suppress them.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party
The Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has endorsed the planned protest organized by his supporters.
He has expressed his support for Nigerians’ constitutional right to protest, thereby tacitly endorsing the planned August 1 nationwide protests against hardship in the country.
Omoyele Sowore of the AAC
Omoyele Sowore, the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, has been a frontier of the anti-Tinubu protest and has spoken out against a court order limiting the planned nationwide hunger protest to designated areas in Lagos.
Sowore stated that his location during the protest was irrelevant, adding that he could participate in the demonstration from anywhere. He also added that the protest’s organizers are hunger, unemployment, insecurity, poverty, and corruption.
He has emphasized that the right to protest is constitutional and cannot be dictated by the police.
See the video of his interview here:
Presidential candidates who rejected protest
However, despite the protest getting endorsements from the presidential candidates of the PDP, Labour Party and the AAC, the flagbearers of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso and his counterpart in the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, have rejected the protest.
While Kwankwaso and Adebayo have faulted Tinubu’s style of governance, they don’t see protest as the way forward, citing possible destruction of lives and properties using the agitation.
