Protest: Tinubu should’ve been silent than making ‘annoying’ speech, says Okonkwo
Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 election, has President Bola Tinubu should have resisted making a speech to address #EndBadGovernance than an “annoying” one.
The President addressed the nation on Sunday morning, on the heels of the nationwide protests over hunger, hardship, unemployment and rising inflation in the country.
However, many have said the speech did address the demands of the protesters, who have among others, called for federal lawmakers to be put on the national minimum wage and return of fuel subsidy.
“The people are protesting for hunger and hardship, deprivation and degradation. And the president was compelled to speak,” Okonkwo said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.
“I wish they did not compel him. If I were a media aide, I would have preferred there was no speech at all because a bad speech is worse than no speech at all.
“In addition to the speech being empty and very annoying, it was even leaked before the day,” he said, adding that the president should have fired some of his media aides.
“The president was compelled to speak; I wish they did not compel him…because a bad speech is worse than no speech at all.”
The actor-turned-lawyer insisted that protest is necessary in a democracy but condemned violent actions by a few persons.
He said the President should have reduced the size of his cabinet and reversed the decision to buy him a new presidential jet.
Okonkwo said instead of petrol subsidy removal and its replacement with palliatives, which according to him, don’t go around, the government should return the subsidies on petrol and electricity tariff because “subsidy itself is a palliative”.
According to him, this government has depreciated the standard of living of Nigerians and the administration should restore productivity through the provision of a friendly business climate.
Aside from Okonkwo, Noble Laureate Wole Soyinka, senior lawyer Femi Falana, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), among others picked holes in the president’s speech.
