APC to Atiku: We expect you to lead national protest

The National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ajibola Basiru, has said that he expects former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to lead the planned nationwide protest.

Basiru stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday while responding to Atiku’s latest criticism against the Tinubu administration.

Atiku had criticised the Federal Government and its agencies for trying to abort the planned August 1 protest across the country.

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But during the interview, Basiru said that demands of the leaders of the planned protest were political.

He said, “As far as I am concerned, talk is very cheap. I expect Atiku Abubakar on the day of the protest to lead. Nobody has stopped somebody to protest.

“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and our party, the APC have not stopped anybody from protesting. At various radio and TV stations different people come with ideas some of them adverse to our government. Has anybody been arrested for criticizing our government? That is what democracy is all about heterogeneity of ideas.

“That protest is not about bad governance because when you talk about bad governance there are many parameters that come into play. I don’t know if you have seen the charter of the so-called leaders. Their demands are political.

“They said we should scrap the 1999 constitution and replace it with people made constitution, we should do away with the Senate and then the issue of minimum wage. The  President has addressed the question of minimum wage.”

Basiru added that the Tinubu adminstration was working hard to solve the challenges facing Nigeria.