July 29, (THEWILL) – The Presidency has assured Nigerians of their rights to peaceful protests, saying that President Bola Tinubu’s administration does not seek to dominate citizens but to serve them.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, made this known on Sunday.
THEWILL reports that a planned demonstration, tagged ‘EndBadGovernance Protest’, has been scheduled to be held across all states of the Federation, as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja from August 1, 2024.
Speaking during an interview on the TVC programme “Politics on Sunday”, Ngelale emphasised that no part of the administration has the authority to prevent peaceful protests.
“Let me be clear: we are not in office to dominate our people; we are here to serve them. No one in our administration has the authority to deny Nigerians their right to peaceful protest”, he said.
However, Ngelale acknowledged concerns about the potential for the protests to be hijacked, similar to what occurred during the #EndSARS movement, in 2020.
According to the Ngelale, “Such concerns are legitimate. We don’t operate in bad faith simply because a certain scenario unfolded several years ago under a different leadership in the country.
“Our view is that indeed there are lessons to be gleaned from what happened in 2020, but that does not mean that Nigerians, who have lived through that experience, who understand that it is entirely possible for peaceful protest to be hijacked by such mischievous elements and maybe political forces in some cases, now mean that we cannot trust Nigerians to peacefully protest. I think Nigerians are very well aware of this fact.”
