Lawyer and Human Rights Activist Liborous Oshoma has criticised President Tinubu’s speech addressing the ongoing #endbadgovernance protests in Nigeria, saying that the speech did not highlight the pressing concerns of the nation.
This criticism came during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday.
Oshoma criticised the speech saying, “I think that’s a speech that could have been made long before the protest. I don’t think that’s a speech for the protest. First and foremost, they had to beg the president to address the nation and when the address eventually came, he didn’t even address the issues.
“This one, you just went on and on talking about housing, talking about what the government has done, the challenges that you met and that they would not be solved in one day. Everything the president said are things that people already know that you are doing.”
The lawyer further lamented the President’s lack of dialogue with civil society, a practice President Tinubu was known for in the past, as well as his attitude to media interaction, highlighting that he has done poorly in that aspect and noting that the president had to be persuaded to address the nation.
He said, “Before now, President Tinubu is somebody who you would say ordinarily would not shy away from the media. But I am shocked that since President Tinubu took over office, till date, there has not been this media chat or media interaction, because consistent conversations will help to douse tension.
“This is a president who used to dialogue with civil society. What has stopped the president from discussing with Nigerians? Nigerians actually need people to dialogue with them. We need that dialogue with our leaders. We need to have a consistent conversation.”
He therefore highlighted the need for visible measures to address pressing concerns saying, “You are asking us to tighten our belt yet we are not seeing government tighten their belt. What is government doing in that regard? Give some concession. Typical of our government here, there was none. No concession. You just said everybody should give government time. How long? What are the timelines? What are your short term measures? What are your medium term measures? What are your long term measures to addressing these issues?
“A situation where we continue to run our country the way we have been running it, our refineries will not work, our problems will continue. We will begin to push it down the ladder. Any president that comes will tell you ‘I didn’t create the problem, I’m just doing my best.’
“If we have credible governance at the local level, the solution is not just dialogue. Dialoguing with poverty means you devote power to the locals. If you take governance to the local level, it’s not enough to say we are going to pay their money down. Let them collect the revenue and then everybody will sit up. It all ends with let there be governance at the local level. People can get food, people can be free from hunger and people can truly see what government is doing.”
Melissa Enoch
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