Planned Nationwide Protests: Military On Alert As DHQ Warns Against Violence
By Anne Osemekeh, Abuja
The Defence Headquarters says that the military is prepared to play its constitutional role if the planned nationwide protests degenerate into violence.
The Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj Gen Edward Buba, who disclosed this while briefing journalists on Thursday, at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, acknowledged that while citizens have a constitutional right to peaceful protests, they do not have a right to mobilise for anarchy in order to unleash terror.
It will be recalled that Nigerian government officials held an emergency meeting Wednesday in response to nationwide protests planned next month over governance issues and the cost of living.
The meeting came a day after President Bola Tinubu made a public appeal through his information minister, Mohammed Idris Malagi, asking citizens not to go through with the protests and urging them to be patient with the government.
More than 40 cabinet members attended the meeting, including the secretary to the government, the national security adviser and ministers.
Malagi told journalists after the meeting that authorities were working hard to address the grievances of the people but that the government would need more time.
According to Buba, there are essentially several factors to be thoroughly examined, regarding the planned protests, some of which are whether or not it is motivated by opposition politics, independent parties, sovereign interference, terrorist groups or any numbers of organizations that have fed on the frustrations of Nigerians to create the situation.
He further revealed that there were indicators that unscrupulous elements are bent on hijacking the planned protests for violent purposes, and a guise to unleash mayhem on ordinary citizens, persons of other ethnic groups and members of opposing political parties among others.
“Based on the foregoing, the level of violence envisaged is best described as a state of anarchy. It is for this reason the armed forces will not watch and allow the nation spiral out of control to such low levels”, he said, adding that, “troops will act dutifully to forestall such ugly occurrences from happening in our nation”.
He urged citizens to note that the timing and the atmosphere of hardship in the country makes the planned protest different from others in the past, and as such, It is incumbent upon us all, to quench the fires of violence rather than ignite them.
“It is time to let, cool heads prevail in order for government to further remedy the situation and make our nation flourish again”, Buba stated.
