The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has disassociated itself from the planned nationwide protest scheduled to commence on August 1 to 10, 2024, over economic hardship in Nigeria.

The ACF, while acknowledging the rights of Nigerians to protest, said the 10-day demonstration would be “counterintuitive, disruptive, and counterproductive”.

The Forum said this in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. TA Muhammad-Baba, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.

The ACF also urged northerners to decline participation in the nationwide protest.

Listing reasons for undermining the protest, the ACF stated: “There has been no robust engagement with representatives of the people over accountability and good governance, as for, example, with state governors, members of the National and state assemblies, etc.

“What is discernible from the justification and demands from the promoters of the protests are largely incoherent, and poorly articulated with their likelihood of success very doubtful.

“None of the reasons for the planned action directly addresses the North’s most pressing current challenge: debilitating insecurity which lingers unsolved and continues to wreak havoc on citizens.

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“The exercise fundamental rights to protest or demonstrate are exercised at the individual’s discretion, and no one should be forced to do so.

“A ten-day shutdown of Nigeria will be much too long, counterproductive, and disruptive. It comes as no surprise that already, groups and organisations across Nigeria have been coming out to dissociate from the planned protests. It is unthinkable that the millions of Nigeria that feed from meagre daily earnings can sustain a close down of up ten days.

“With the bulk of its population facing existential economic and political challenges, made worse by devastating insecurity and terrorism, the protest may entail a possible lockdown of the whole country which will imperil the lives of the people of the North even further.

“Under current circumstances, the protests have the real potential to turn violent and/or be hijacked by criminals.

“ACF’s concerns are aggravated by some trending posts on social media where an anonymous voice not only threatens anarchy but also ominously urged one of the presidential candidates in the 2023 election to flee to England ahead of the planned protest, reminiscent of the situation in Nigeria ahead of the 1966 bloody military coup.

“Under the circumstances, a rush to protest will be counterintuitive, disruptive, and counterproductive. ACF therefore unequivocally rejects the call for participation in such a course of action and calls on the people of the North to decline participation.”

The Forum, however, called on all authorities, at the local government, state, and federal levels, “to most urgently address obvious shortcomings in current approach to public policy-making and implementation such as will alleviate the dire existential conditions that Nigerian citizens live with.”

The Star