From Joseph Asegba, Yola
Thursday morning pre-protest proper, government supporters in their thousands took over Jimeta’s major streets the administrative seat of Adamawa State.
The early protesters and pro-government said the laudable policies and initiatives of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu were worth appreciating, as parallel processions also took place in the state.
However, the protests took place under tight security as police and personnel of NSCDC were seen stationed at strategic locations including the police roundabout and Ribadu Square the terminal points.
This, the pro-president took a long procession from the police roundabout to Ribadu Square to rally in support of the president’s initiatives bore supportive placards with several inscriptions among them were solidly behind President Tinubu, no to anti-democratic forces, we cannot allow democracy to be hijacked by evil forces, women and youths are for peace and progress in support of the president.
Leaders of different groups addressed journalists the youth, women and people living with disability acknowledged the critical development challenges hobbling the nation saying that it is the result of years of misgovernance.
The leadership of pro-government protesters including, Comfort Ibrahim Ezra, the convener of women in politics, Yakubu Umar, Adamu Ibrahim Pola, Musa Hamma Adama and Anas Bala stated that the president has started on a good footing and has so far established far-reaching reforms including championing LG autonomy, students loan scheme, implementing new minimum wage establishing a commission for PLWD amongst many reforms.
The groups urged the people to instead of protesting, channel their grievances through dialogue because of the propensity of the president to listen to the people.
Speaking also, the separate protest organized by the Take It Back, leader of the group Ibrahim Waziri Bappa a former state lawmaker said their reason for staging the protest was to call on the government to address insecurity, inflation, poverty and food insecurity.
According to Waziri, if the president conceded to these critical demands they would have no reason to remain on the roads urging the president to do the needful so that Nigerians can have some relief.
The former lawmaker therefore urged the president to also return subsidies on petrol, and electricity and restore the value of the naira. He also called on Nigerians to continue to resist the bad policies of the government.
He noted that the government has been frightened by agitations saying that if the people persist, the government will be forced to capitulate.
One who spoke under anonymity said, that if this protest succeeds, it would be God who heard the prayers of the people’s hunger and if it does not succeed it is as a result that the time frame given for the protest was too long which gave the government strategies its failure.
He added that if their demand is not met they will continue till the last day the government should what it means citizens protesting for ten days will tell good of such a government.
