*Rubbishes call for youths’ conference
The nationwide October 1st protest tagged #FearlessProtest kicked off early Tuesday, October 1, 2024, as demonstrators gathered under the Ikeja Bridge and Ojota in Lagos to mark Nigeria’s 2024 Independence Day with a call to address the nation’s economic woes.
Tagged “FearlessOctober1,” the protest was organised by civil society groups including the Take-It-Back Movement, Revolution Now, the Education Rights Campaign and others.
The heavy security presence of Law enforcement agencies including police, soldiers, the National Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corp (LNSC), did not deter the demonstrators as they continued their march while dancing from Ikeja Underbridge to Allen Avenue Roundabout then to Ojota.
The protesters while chanting the Old National Anthem, solidarity songs and holding placards with slogans expressed the need to come out and exercise their right to protest as this marks the second nationwide protest in recent months due to the worsening economic conditions.
Speaking at the Protest ground. Education Rights Activist, Hassan Taiwo Soweto said the protesters have vowed to remain non-violent even if provoked by security forces.
Before the protest, the National Coordinator of The Education Rights Campaign, Hassan Taiwo Soweto, said he alongside other activists was being targeted by the Police and the DSS due to their involvement in the August protests and the October 1st End Bad Governance protest
As part of their demand, they called for immediate action by the government while demanding a reduction in fuel prices, relief from the high cost of living, a reduction in the cost of governance, the need for electoral and human capital reforms and intensified efforts to combat widespread insecurity challenges Nigerians are plunged into.
The organisers stressed that the protest was driven by the government’s failure to address these urgent concerns, which continue to push millions of Nigerians deeper into poverty.
Meanwhile, former Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, in Ojota decried the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and others.
Sowore also demanded the release of the protesters who were arrested during the #Endbadgovernance protest in August.
“We are working together for the release. Part of the reason why we are protesting is to ensure everybody that is in detention illegally, who are being charged with false criminal offenses, including treason which carries a death penalty must be released immediately and thus extend to Nnamdi Kalu who we believe is being persecuted by the Nigerian state because he has expressed the desire of his people to secede from Nigeria.”
“They have the right to either stay or leave Nigeria. Our preference is that we will not completely prevent anybody from either staying or being in Nigeria.”
“We have called on Nigerians to exercise real independence because the Independence that was granted to Nigerians in 1960 has become a burden to the Nigeria citizens and part of the problem in 1960 is that we got flag independence, we did not get real independence, so we are transferred to white colonialists to internal colonialism.”
“We have asked Nigerians to commence the series of actions to get real independence and that starts today. We are very clear that this country needs a revolution. Nothing but revolution can liberate Nigerians from the shackles of people.”
Reacting to the call by President Bola Tinubu for 30-day youth Conference, he said: “We will not encourage any other jamboree; we are not going to any youth forum or confab. We want the Nigerian people to create their own constitution and for the constitution to go through a referendum and become a new basis for relationships among Nigerians.
