Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of failing to offer solutions to Nigerians over the October 2020 Lekki taking pictures, saying six years after the incident, the nation remains to be ready to know who ordered the taking pictures.
Atiku, in a press release marking the sixth anniversary of the EndSARS protests, mentioned the APC-led authorities owed Nigerians, significantly younger individuals, accountability for the incident and a greater future amid worsening financial hardship.
“Six years after the Lekki shooting, Nigeria is still waiting for a clear answer to one devastating question: Who gave the order?” he mentioned.
He additionally recalled the response of President Bola Tinubu, who, in October 2020, questioned the circumstances surrounding the presence of protesters on the Lekki Toll Gate and the casualties recorded in the course of the incident.
Atiku mentioned Tinubu, fairly than demonstrating the empathy and compassion the tragedy demanded, had requested: “How were they there? How long were they there? What kind of characters are they?”
According to him, the response appeared extra involved with questioning the victims than demanding accountability from these chargeable for the violence in opposition to peaceable protesters.
“The anger trending across the country today is not a social media performance. It is grief that has been left to harden into distrust,” Atiku mentioned.
He added that households have been nonetheless demanding solutions whereas younger Nigerians who participated within the protests continued to await the reality concerning the incident.
The former vp mentioned the APC, having ruled the nation for six years because the protests, may now not keep away from confronting the unresolved questions surrounding the taking pictures.
“The APC has governed Nigeria through these six years. It cannot keep asking Nigerians to remember the dead while refusing to confront the unanswered questions,” he mentioned.
Atiku argued {that a} authorities unable to guarantee residents that their lives mattered had failed in one among its most simple duties.
He additionally linked the lingering grievances over the Lekki taking pictures to the financial difficulties confronting younger Nigerians, citing rising petrol costs, transportation prices and shrinking alternatives.
According to him, petrol promoting at ₦1,405 per litre meant much less cash for meals, training, hire and different important wants.
“The APC promised renewal. For too many Nigerians, the experience has been rising costs, shrinking opportunity and a future pushed further out of reach,” he mentioned.
“No speech about growth can excuse empty pockets. No anniversary tribute can replace justice. No campaign slogan can erase six years of unanswered questions.”
Atiku additionally narrated the expertise of a younger girl who, based on him, resigned from her job as a result of her wage may now not cowl the price of transportation to work.
He quoted the lady as saying: “The pay no longer covers transport. Everything in Nigeria just dey increase in price. Feels like I’m working for Bolt guys.”
Describing the state of affairs as proof of the nation’s worsening cost-of-living disaster, Atiku mentioned even Nigerians who had secured employment have been more and more struggling to afford the price of incomes a residing.
He blamed the federal government’s financial insurance policies for worsening the difficulties confronted by staff, arguing that salaries had misplaced buying energy amid rising costs.
Atiku mentioned his proposed Economic Recovery Plan was designed to deal with the challenges by means of measures aimed toward making Nigeria extra reasonably priced.
He listed help tied to domestically refined gasoline, with financial savings handed on to customers, elevated native manufacturing to create jobs, safety for minimum-wage earners, pupil help and reductions in authorities waste fairly than the imposition of latest taxes.
“Young Nigerians deserve the truth about Lekki. They deserve a government that protects life, and an economy that gives work a chance to lead somewhere,” he mentioned.
“Six years on, the APC has had ample time to answer for its record. Nigerians are entitled to ask why the answers and the opportunities are still missing.”
The EndSARS protests started in October 2020, with younger Nigerians demanding an finish to police brutality and the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
The Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos turned a serious protest website. The taking pictures of protesters there on October 20, 2020, triggered widespread outrage and renewed requires accountability over the usage of drive in opposition to demonstrators.
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