Former minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has told President Bola Tinubu that he missed an opportunity to placate citizens by showing concrete evidence of how he intends to address the demands of the #EndBadGovernance protesters.
In a post on her X (formerly Twitter) handle @obyezeks on Sunday as a reaction to the president’s national broadcast, she described the address as a “terribly underwhelming read.”
She also said that the president’s broadcast read like a page from the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto and failed to connect with citizens.
Ezekwesili, who served as the vice president of the World Bank’s Africa region from May 2007 to May 2012, accused the president of writing his speech with the mindset of targeting his enemies.
She blasted Nigerian leaders for not accepting responsibility for the demands of their positions, which she alleged that they main and kill to attain.
She advised President Tinubu to direct the Inspector General of Police to restrain its personnel from killing peaceful protesters.
The former minister of solid minerals posted: “@officialABAT, As one of millions of Nigerians who were at church when you delivered your late-in-coming Speech to Citizens on the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria protests, let me loudly say it was terribly underwhelming to read.
“Your speech reads like a page from your party manifesto and terribly failed to connect to what our Citizens on the Streets are angry and protesting about.
“Your speech is quite a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and outline of convincing evidence-based actions that you and your @NigeriaGov will immediately take to address the priority #BadGovernance concerns.
“Your speech was sadly again written out of a mindset that is focused on “getting back at our enemies”. Imaginary enemies at that! No true Leader has the luxury of having “enemies” among their Citizens. Not at all. A Public Leader becomes the Leader of all with a mind that does not think of any as their enemies.
“This is why it is ever unfortunate to see Nigerian public ‘Leaders’ talk and behave like Losers on matters of public governance where they are expected to rally their all Citizens behind the common purpose of nation-building.
“It is nauseating to observe this recurrent innate unwillingness of Nigerian public leaders to admit responsibility for the demands of the same public leadership that they kill and maim citizens to assume.
“@officialABAT, Citizens know when they are being badly governed and from what one can see, Nigerians have now realized that they must collectively speak up and take action otherwise their self-obsessed rulers (and not leaders) will not pay them any heed at all.
“As we remember and pray for families of all our citizens mauled down or maimed for demanding an End to Bad Governance, let me call on you @officialABAT to immediately instruct the IG @PoliceNG and his men to “Sop Killing Peaceful Protesters Now!
“Also fish out all law enforcement personnel that have killed and maimed citizens and ensure they are sanctioned as a deterrence to their colleagues.”
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
