- He said the right of Nigerians to protest is enshrined in the constitution and the Tinubu-led government affirms the right of the citizens to exercise such right.
President Bola Tinubu should not be blamed for the widespread hardship and suffering that necessitated the recent nationwide protest, vice president, Kashim Shettima, has said.
Speaking interview with the Radio France RFI Hausa Service; monitored by our correspondent in Kaduna on Sunday, Shettima said Tinubu’s government is doing everything to address the challenges facing the country.
He attributed the troubling and parlous state of the nation to years of bad governance and maladministration, adding that there was only so much Tinubu could do in a year to reverse the trend.
Recall that Nigerians in their thousands took to the streets in major towns and cities across the country to express their discontent with the state of the nation as galloping inflation and high cost of living push more people into poverty.
Commenting on the Protest, he said the right of Nigerians to protest is enshrined in the constitution and the Tinubu-led government affirms the right of the citizens to exercise such right.
He, however, said the concerns and fear of the government is the protest being hijacked by unscrupulous persons who would use it to cause chaos and unrest.
“In my understanding, we are in a democracy and democracy has given a citizen the right to voice his grievances but in a peaceful manner. What we are running away from is politicians with bad intentions and hoodlums to cause a commotion that would lead to anarchy. That’s what we’ve been running from and unfortunately, it happened. “
“But the President is a complete politician who will never deny any citizen his rights. But what happened was quite unfortunate and disturbing to the society, and to the Government how things happened.”
On whether they were aware of how the people were suffering since the oil subsidy was removed, Alhaji Kashim Shettima said “These people are our friends, our neighbours. They are our politicians.”
“Wallahi, Wallahi Wallahi ( he swears) we know what they are going through. But what is happening is that the mistake of the last 63 years, we’ve just spent one year in office. But in the tradition entails in governance, one would not say it’s those in the past that erred. Whether good or bad, we are the current leaders and we are the ones who should take the steps to help our people. We would do so, in shaa Allah.”