President Bola Tinubu on Saturday said he is worried over the continuing protests in parts of the country, expressing the determination of his administration to provide succour and cushion the hardship being faced by the citizens.
President Tinubu’s worry is coming against the backdrop of growing public concern that he has, curiously, kept mute over the protests and other sundry allegations of crackdown against demonstrators. 
Specifically, there has been tension in many parts of the country, as palpable fear continues to mount that the protest may descend into anarchy.
Recall that demonstrators across the nation’s capital are participating in the protests under the banner of #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria.
The development has also paralyzed businesses across the city, as the protesters on day three, continue to raise placards decrying the high cost of food and living conditions in the nation’s capital.
But in a terse response on the development Saturday, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, told The Guardian that, “the President is concerned about the plight of Nigerians and would do everything to cushion the hardship.”
The Minister, however, did not give further details.
Also reacting to public concerns, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, dismissed insinuations of a subliminal orchestration by the Tinubu administration to stifle the people’s fundamental human rights to protest.
Fielding questions from The Guardian, he said, “Let me first of all take this opportunity to put it on record that we have heard certain utterances from some members of even our own administration, and indeed from some subnational entities in the country, suggesting that Nigerians do not have the right to protest and that they would be stopped from protesting.
“I want to be very clear, there is nobody within our administration that has the standing, the command, or the gravitas to tell any Nigerian citizen that they cannot peacefully protest and that they cannot peacefully protest in any part of this country.
“We are not in office to dominate our people. We are in office to serve our people. And this is the position of the President. His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu has been very clear that the notion of peaceful protest is a central component of an effectively functioning democracy.
“He cited the fact that as an activist, it was the power of peaceful protests, even against the murderous and brutal nature of the regimes in office at the time to ultimately achieve the result of a return to civilian rule in 1999. So, there will never be a president with that background that would in any way insinuate or suggest that Nigerians should not engage in peaceful protest, if they have decided to do so. I want to make that abundantly clear,” Ngelale said.
The Presidential Spokesman, who also fielded questions when he appeared on a national television interview aired by TVC, and monitored in Abuja, last Sunday, said, “anyone who disagrees with the notion from inside of government, the notion that we are here to serve our people, that we’re not here to dominate them, that Nigerians do have the right to peacefully protest,” added that such individuals are “aligning themselves against a commander in chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who will defend the right of Nigerians to peacefully protest in any part of this country. And we want to be very unequivocal about that.”
However, Ngelale said further that, “such concerns are legitimate. But we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. And 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 now mean that Nigerians who have lived through that experience, who understand that it is entirely possible for a peaceful protest to be hijacked by, you know, such mischievous elements and maybe, political forces, in some cases, that this now means that we cannot trust Nigerians to peacefully protest.
“I think Nigerians are very well aware of the fact that when bus terminals were being burnt down, they ultimately had to suffer the consequence of that when there are services, public services and utilities that you were used to using as part of your daily existence, that you can no longer use for several months because of the active actions of just a very few, just a handful of mischievous individuals operating within a crowd.
“I think there’s a recognition on the part of our people that it is not in their interest for such activity to take place. You have a protest movement that’s been hijacked and people are now looting, looting such stores and creating havoc around these environments.
“Ultimately, it will be that Nigerian citizen who is toiling, who’s working hard every day, who’s going to suffer the consequence of that.
“So, our position with respect to the potential for a hijacking is about defending the rights of Nigerians and defending their properties and defending their personal safety with respect to working out the security platforms and the security strategy with respect to how we’re going to ensure that those mischievous elements do not operate successfully within what is a legitimate and peaceful protest movement.”
The Presidential aide also attributed the continuing demonstration in the country to the actions of political groups acting behind the scenes to leverage the protests for ulterior motives.
“That does not mean that we are unaware or naive about the fact that there are political interest groups in the country who may seek to leverage the presence of a peaceful protest to achieve an ulterior motive.
“We recognize that our security agencies are on top of that. But ultimately, we believe in the wisdom of our people in the principles and values shared by our people, and we believe that our people fully understand that it is in their interest to protest in a way that is in conformity with international norms.”
