Amidst the current economic crisis in the country a popular Christian cleric Primate Elijah Ayodele has warned of a mass protest by Nigerians.
The cleric in a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, on Monday, said such protest is imminent this year due to what Nigerians are currently going through.
The federal government should watch out, Elijah said, because the protest would be similar to the EndSars protest in 2020, where youths across the country moved to the streets to express their anger against Police brutality and the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Ayodele’s prediction comes on the heels of the picketing of Discos and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, offices across the country on Monday by the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC in protest of higher electricity tariff.
The federal government had recently hiked the tariff to the anger of not a few Nigerians.
According to Ayodele, the coming protest will involve many Nigerians and will be “terrible”, urging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do everything to avert it.
The administration can only achieve this, he said, by addressing “the economic hardship now”.
He said: “I see another massive protest that will affect every quarter if there is no improvement by August-September, it will be terrible.
‘’President Tinubu should address the economic hardship now, he should also improve on electricity because if there is no adequate power supply, it will affect the economy badly. They should declare a state of emergency on electricity because nothing is improving. This aspect will affect the Nigerian economy.
‘’The government should also improve on agriculture to prevent hardship that is uncalled for. There is a lot to do to bring the price of food commodities down, if you don’t do it now there will be a massive protest. All these propaganda will not help, let them face reality.’’
Since the beginning of the year, pockets of protests have been held by Nigerians across major state capitals in the country, including the hijack of trucks carrying foods and other household goods by some hungry protesters.
The government has so far been able to quell such protests through the police and other security agencies.
