INTERVIEW: ‘Any protest without a face is presumed to lead to violence’ – Comrade Olowu

Comrade Olowu Emmanuel is the Chairman of the Osun State Chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR). In this interview with Deborah Oladejo, he speaks on what President Bola Tinubu can do to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians, and the planned protest among other issues. Excerpts…

Q: Given the current economic hardship in the country, what are your candid thoughts on the current state of Nigeria’s economy?
A: The May 29, 2023 declaration of President Bola Tinubu further exposed how short-sighted our leaders are. The state of the Nigerian Economy is a manifest of long-time neglect of the poor people by leaders at all levels.

The economy has become so bad as a result of long-time poor macro and micro economic policies by the past and present Governments in Nigeria. We should ask ourselves what fiscal, monetary and exchange rate policies we operated between 1990 – 1999 and 1999 till date.

The Tinubu-led Federal Government has to be sincere with the formation of its macro and micro economic policies because, without a policy that will support the growth of the poor people of Nigeria, we will continue in this mess.

Q: How do you think the Government can tackle inflation?

A: The Government has to know that macroeconomic policies are centred on job creation, wealth creation for all citizens, improvement in living standards etc which are the indices of a strengthened economy. It is therefore important that the Government via a pure public sector investment, must declare a state of emergency in the following sectors: agriculture, textile and housing sector.

It should be noted that the following have to be put in place if the Government is to achieve the above:
One, the immediate setting up of agriculture product processing mills across the six political zones of Nigeria. Two, the revitalization of Nigeria’s textile industries, as well as the immediate revitalization of all dead steel mills to promote the advancement of housing and production of industrial equipment.

Q: Would you support the move by various Nigerian groups planning a nationwide protest from August 1 to 10 to address the country’s soaring cost of living and economic hardship?

A: Protest is a constitutional right of every Nigerian which should be allowed by the Nigerian government and all security agents because their duties are to protect life and properties. I support the protest because their demands are genuine but the challenge is that the protest does not have a face and any protest without a face is presumed to lead to violence because there is nobody to negotiate with.

Conclusively, the time for the spontaneous protest that will save Nigerians has not come, all these protests in recent times are a buildup towards the day of the spontaneous one coming in the future. It should be noted that we are all sitting on gunpowder that might explode in the shortest possible time if the Government fails to ease this man-made hardship in the land.

Q: The UN expressed concerns about the possibility of violence, citing past instances where similar protests in Nigeria escalated. What do you think could be done?

A: I can bet it the United Nations is a joker, the August 1 – 10 protest cannot escalate taking into consideration that it cannot find funding and that we cannot say that another ENDSAR is coming on August 1 to 10 is just a buildup.

However, the UN should advise the Government to look into the demands before the said day of action because Nigerians are tired of promises without implementation plans and moves.

Q: The nation’s private sectors have been driving economic growth and development, but government policies are crippling the move, what can private sectors do to avert this economic predicament?

A: The private sector is presently suffering under this bad economic policy of the Government. However, we should understand that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) was a key that brought about tremendous success in the Nigerian private sector.

Today, if we are to trace the history of commercialization, privatization, and policies we will trace it to the private sector policies in Nigeria.

Note that the solution to the state of Nigeria’s economy is for those in leadership to drop the self-centeredness in them, kill corruption in the system abrogate laws that don’t have a human face and do things in tandem with all laws of the country.

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