Stop Creating Panic, Generating Tension – HURIWA Tells FG

…Urges govt to demonstrate leadership

A Civil Rights Advocacy Group on the aegis of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed concern over the creation of panic and igniting tension by the Federal Government and its heads of security agencies in the country.

HURIWA specifically noted that the persistent dissemination of misinformation by government officials aimed at demonising the constitutionally guaranteed freedom to hold peaceful demonstrations when the people are aggrieved about bad governance in the country, has contributed to the heightened state of fear, apprehensions and panic by citizens.

It said that Nigerians expect that government officials ought to play the role of stabilisation as against being agents of misinformation, peddling of false information and unsubstantiated intelligence.

HURIWA urged the Federal government and its officials to provide good leadership devoid of peddling of cheap, unsubstantiated claims and false intelligence following the decision by some aggrieved Nigerians to stage peaceful protests against bad governance and unprecedented corruption and hunger in the country.

The rights group in a statement by its National coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, particularly called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call his appointees to order and stop forthwith the circulation of “cheap lies that are orchestrating panic and tensions’ amongst members of the public.

HURIWA noted that the fear by the federal and state governments over nationwide protests expected to commence on August 1st, has made several government officials at both the federal and sub-national levels to continuously stoke on social tensions through all kinds of statements and claims that are absolutely unscientific and totally unacceptable.

It noted that the minister of State for Youth Development, Olawande Ayodele, received members of the Renewed Hope Ambassadora of Nigeria, led by Zack Orji, urged Nigerian youths not to allow contents they see on social media push them into setting the country ablaze.

HURIWA said the claim by Ayodele that people who are against the government are circulating false information using the social media, is totally not correct because even the publicly funded National Bureau of Statistics had officially designated Nigeria as the poverty capital of the World with well over 133 million people who are multi-dimensionally poor.

It further said; “Is this minister of State for Youth Development, Olwande Ayodele residing in the outer space for him not to be aware that the high costs of living is factually and existentially true in Nigeria? Is the minister unaware that millions of Nigerians can’t afford most essential commodities including food items such as tomatoes, tubers of yams, sweet potatoes and proteins such as cow meat, goat meat and chickens because of the fact that their prices are way beyond the affordability of millions of hungry Nigerians?

“Is Ayodele not aware that there is severe fuel scarcity even as over 60 million Nigerian households are without any means of electricity supply, their family members drink dirty water and many have died from the cholera afflictions all over the federation?

“Nigerian youths don’t need to be misinformed by any opponent of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because the youth are feeling the pinch of the severe economic adversities affecting millions of households in the country.

“Is the high inflationary trends, the constant devaluation and depreciation of the Naira and the unprecedented hike in pump price of fuel not the true Nigerian situation? Why does anyone need the social media information to provide the exact narratives of what everyone go through on daily basis in the country?” HURIWA asked.

The Rights group also condemned the tendencies by the heads of the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army to continuously inflict the public space with claims and statements about some foreign mercenaries hired to orchestrate the nationwide protests against the economic hardships affecting millions of Nigerian households.

It said; “If the Inspector General of Police has the intelligence that foreign elements are involved in the planned nationwide demonstration, then let the police chief name those sponsors. For the Army too that claimed that some armed hoodlums would hijack the protests, the military should have immediately apprehended the armed hoodlums since the military have a working knowledge of these hoodlums and hand them over for investigation and prosecution by the police and the office of the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

“Instead, what the Nigerian public are persistently fed with, are half-truths, poorly scripted propaganda, and a whole bunch of claims that aren’t backed up by credible data and empirical evidence thereby contributing to a heightened state of fear, apprehensions and tensions all over the country,”” it said.

HURIWA therefore called on the government and particularly public office holders, to stop stoking up tensions in Nigeria but, should disseminate informed and knowledgeable information as against peddling rumours about the notices issued by some aggrieved Nigerians to stage peaceful protests.

It said what the government should be working to achieve is to ensure that any protest that may be staged, is peacefully conducted and warned security agencies to stop any clandestine plots to import armed infiltrators to disrupt the protests as was experienced during the October 2020 #EndSars nationwide protests.