Protests in north plot to overthrow Tinubu’s govt – Shehu Sani

• He said the protest in the northern part of the country was part of an elaborate plot and attempt to overthrow the President Bola Tinubu-led government

Activist and socio-political commentator, Shehu Sani, says the #EndBadGovernance protest in Northern Nigeria has nothing to do with the state of the nation or policies of the current administration.

He said the protest in the northern part of the country was part of an elaborate plot and attempt to overthrow the President Bola Tinubu-led government.

Sani, a former lawmaker who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, made this known during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Tuesday.

Sani, who acknowledged that the country is beset by hardship, said people have the right to protest but the protests must be peaceful.

He said, “There was no visible leadership during the protest as far as Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, etc, are concerned. It’s a fact that even protest has a rule. The first rule is that there will be a reason for which people protest. Yes, there is hunger and hardship as a result of economic reforms which are enough reasons for people to protest, but peacefully.”

He noted that protests must have leaders that will organise the whole the exercise and control those that would partake in it, adding that lack of leadership in protest is a recipe for anarchy.

“Secondly the protest needs leadership. When you have leaders who will lead the floor in the streets, then certainly one of the responsibilities of that leader is to control the crowd and guide them.

“He can say we are going to start the protest from one point to another and from 6am to 4pm. That was not the care in the north, especially from Kaduna where I come from. People were called out to the street and they were left on autopilot. The young people use the opportunity to launch attacks on public infrastructure, molest people and attack banks.”

He asserted that the flying of Russian flags during the protests by some youths was a coup attempt.

“The new dimension that money was shared to youth and the Russian flag was shared shows that the whole intent of the protest is not about policies and programmes of the government or removal of subsidy. But there was an attempt to create an atmosphere where there will be an overthrow of the government.

“When you see this kind of situation, there is someone that wrote a script for anarchy, lawlessness and disorder.”