One of the leaders of the planned #EndBadGovernance protest against economic hardship scheduled for August asserts that Eagle Square in Abuja is public property, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, must allow “hungry Nigerian youths” to demonstrate their displeasure at the facility.

Damilare Adenola, the Director of Mobilisation of Take It Back Movement, a non-governmental organisation, made this statement on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.

The protest, which is gaining traction on social media, is planned to be held across all states of the Federation as well as the FCT in August. The prices of food and basic commodities have soared in recent months, as Nigerians grapple with one of the country’s worst inflation rates and economic crises sparked by the government’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and the unification of forex windows.

Adenola had signed a letter addressed to the minister seeking the use of the facility. The letter, dated 26th July 2024, was broadcast on social media platforms. However, the FCT minister stated on Saturday that he hadn’t received the letter.

On Sunday, Adenola attributed the delay in the delivery of the letter to bureaucratic bottlenecks in government but assured that the minister would receive the letter on Monday, ahead of the demonstration starting on Thursday.

“It is possible that the receipt of the letter is being delayed by bureaucracy in government, or the minister is likely being insincere about receiving the letter. If he (Wike) insists that he hasn’t received it, the alternative is that he was served by publication because many Nigerian ministries streamline what to receive or not. If he says he didn’t get it physically, then we could as well say that he was served by publication. If he says he wants it by Monday, we will serve him,” Adenola explained.

“The truth is that Eagle Square is public property. When I saw the video of the minister, I was amazed because I saw the minister asking us to pay rent, pay security fees, and all that. My question to the minister is this: how does the minister expect a greater population of Nigerian youths who are impoverished, who have no jobs to afford the exorbitant fees he is expecting us to pay? We are going to be at Eagle Square on August 1st,” he asserted.

Adenola further criticised the minister for tagging the organisers of the protest as faceless, stating that hunger is a great motivation for the protest and that the organisers need not be privileged Nigerians to express themselves.

“The organisers of the protest are hungry Nigerians; they are a host of unemployed Nigerians, they are a host of hopeless Nigerians who are roaming the streets. They are the out-of-school children spread across the country. These are the organisers of the protest, and the greatest motivation of this #EndBadGovernance protest is hunger. People are really hungry,” he stated.

“This is the idea of battered Nigerian people, this is the idea of hungry Nigerian people, this is the idea of hopeless Nigerian people. Young people are tired and need to express their displeasure against the government’s malfeasance,” he added.

Adenola also disclosed that the bank account of the organisation was blocked on the orders of the Department of State Services (DSS). “The account of the TIB was arbitrarily blocked by UBA allegedly on the orders of the DSS,” he said, adding that the bank was yet to respond to queries from the group. He urged security agencies to make themselves available at all protest venues across the country.