Renowned human rights advocate and senior lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has urged the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to engage in dialogue with the young Nigerians driving the ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests.
Falana spoke on Thursday evening while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He emphasised the need for the government to listen to and address the grievances of the youth, who have been vocal about their discontent through peaceful demonstrations.
He reaffirmed that the right to peaceful protest is a fundamental constitutional entitlement of citizens, which should be exercised without fear of intimidation or reprisal.
Falana, however, cautioned that it is essential for the protests to remain peaceful to achieve their intended objectives.
He said, “The government at all levels must move speedily to douse tension in our country. We must learn to engage the young people who are aggrieved.
“Unlike some of us who did not know the organisers of the protest, the state security service claimed to have known them. So with this, the government should have identified those who are aggrieved and engage them.
“It was only in Rivers State where Governor Siminalayi Fubara came out to address his people. That action made them understand that someone is listening to them and this should have happened all over the place.”
“Unlike EndSARS that no one knew the organisers, this one the organisers are known, so what stopped the government from speaking with them?” he said.
Falana criticised the governments of Lagos and Ogun states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory Administration, for hastily obtaining court orders to limit protesters to specific areas within their jurisdictions.
The lawyer argued that judges should refrain from issuing orders that are unlikely to be obeyed, as this would undermine the judiciary’s credibility.
Various state governments and the FCTA had secured court orders restricting protesters to designated locations, such as Freedom and Peace Parks in Lagos, MKO Abiola Stadium in the FCT, and specific stadiums and schools in Ogun state.
However, Falana justified the protesters’ decision to defy these restrictions and march through the streets, citing the possibility that they may not have been served with the court orders, which were obtained less than 24 hours before the protest began on Thursday morning.
He said, “The government should have learnt not to rush to court on the eve of a protest by young people to get orders. The difficulty with such orders is that they are not served on those they are meant to restrain, some of those to be served according to the order are unknown persons.
“They had two weeks’ notice, why rush to the court at the eve of the protest? It is also a lesson to the judges in the country not to make irrelevant laws, because they end up making a mockery of our judicial system.
“For instance, the order in Lagos was not served on anybody, the orders in Ogun State were not served on anybody, the order in Abuja, I think one of the defendants is said to be ‘unknown persons’. Now, how do you serve court orders on ‘unknown persons’?
“I think in Abuja, there was compliance, the people decided to use the Unity Fountain, but the government sealed it up, so they went into the streets.”
According to Falana, the protest organisers can take heart in the significant impact they’ve made so far, despite isolated incidents of violence.
By successfully putting governments at all levels on notice, they’ve achieved a crucial milestone.
Falana urged the Federal Government to seize the moment, take concrete actions to address the underlying issues and prevent the situation from spiraling further out of control.
