29th July, 2024
By Paul Dada
The President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, has called on the organisers of the nationwide protest scheduled to begin on August 1, to call it off.
Maikyau said the organisers should rather hold a dialogue on the way forward for the country than hold a protest which may turn out to be violent.
The senior lawyer said in a statement on Monday: “I most humbly appeal to Nigerians, particularly those that have decided to embark on the planned street protest to have a rethink and take a second look at what could be the possible outcome of embarking on such exercise to our security, economy, and existence.
“Our past experiences with mass protest are that they are usually hijacked by unscrupulous elements who use the opportunity to commit heinous crimes and thus turn an otherwise peaceful protest into a riot.
“Whatever we are going through right now cannot be compared to the experience of civil unrest and the chaos that could ensue therefrom. Needless to mention nations that are currently going through wars with the attendant carnage and destructions. We do not even want to imagine what the experience would be, and we must forbid it.
“My humble call and appeal, therefore, to both government, the organisers and/or proponents and supporters of the planned protest, is to call off the protest, come together for a frank and sincere discussion on what must be done to immediately begin to turn around the plight of the people for good.”
He urged the both federal and state legislators to hold discussions with their constituents to be able to address the demands of Nigerians.
“We have consistently and in no unclear terms, called the government’s attention to the sufferings of the people of this country and the need for the government to take clear and decisive steps to revamp the economy and get Nigerians out of hunger and poverty, caused largely by incidents of the insecurity across the country.
“The current state of the nation was engendered and sustained by corruption in its different forms and shades, in both public and private sectors.
“While this cannot be solely blamed on the current administration, we had on the subject of national security, vide my letter of June 12, 2023 to President Bola Tinubu, called the attention of this administration to the need for informed investments in the security sector of this country. This was absolutely necessary, because of the direct impact of insecurity on the economy and the prosperity of our people,” he said.
