Chukwudi Nweje, Lagos
The governorship candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), in the Edo State 2020 election, Pastor Peters Omoragbon, has warned that the next wave of the #EndSARS protest will be led by security forces.
Omoragbon, who said the protest is only a first step in the process of ordinary citizens reclaiming Nigeria from the selfish politicians, said though security agents are used against the citizens by the political elite, they are not immune to poverty.
‘The Revolution has just begun in Nigeria. The next stage would be the soldiers and policemen turning their guns against the wicked politicians in business and then the stage will be cleansed for people with a conscience to take over through a level playing political field. The policemen and the soldiers who took part in the dastardly killings of those innocent youths are by now regretting their actions because they and their families are not immune against the poverty imposed on us by those giving them orders. This is the beginning of the end revolution by the oppressed Nigerians against the thieving Nigerian political elites.’
He said Nigerian politicians have failed to learn that governance is about service and putting the people first.
‘What is happening across the breadth and length of Nigeria today is not new to history. Unfortunately, the oppressive ruling classes never learn from history. Good governance means being with the people, knowing their pains, abolishing their poverty, and solving their problems. That is how to govern the people. The experience of the ordinary people since May 29, 1999, when the conventional politicians took over the reign of power from the military has shown that nothing fundamental has changed. Governance has continued to be for the interest of politicians as opposed to being for the people. Our people fought against military dictatorship not because they hated the military uniform but because they strove to enjoy political freedom and economic comfort. Unfortunately, they have not enjoyed either. The inability of the conventional politicians in power to satisfy the economic interests of our people has unjustly driven the government to unleash political repression on the masses.’
He said Nigerians in the Diaspora will sustain their efforts in promoting and increasing the volume of the agitation for good governance in Nigeria until victory is assured.
He called on Nigerians from all works of life to embrace the demands for accountability and good governance and added the country’s ruling class had ignored all the warning signals.
‘Whatever is happening today in Nigeria is inevitable. Our so-called political elites including the President, like the Roman Emperor Nero, fiddled while Rome burned. There is no escape route for any of them. None of them will escape the reprisal because if they had any scruple left in them, they would not have foisted the current burden of leadership on the populace,’ he added.
He berated the state governments that starked up COVID-19 palliative in their warehouses while their people starve.
‘I have never known a government as wicked and insensitive to the plights of the people as the current All Progressives Congress(APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders. How can you explain the massive stockpile of COVID-19 palliatives in secret warehouses why Nigerians were dying by the day without food, water, shelter air, and sleep? COVID 19 pandemic came and N86 billion earmarked for palliative went into private pockets, and we were told, in three days the money has been distributed!!! Whereas, our wicked and greedy politicians were busy building warehouses and stockpiling all the foodstuffs and other items meant for the people in preparation for 2023, so that, during electioneering, these same items would be distributed as gifts by the politicians, who play upon the intelligence of the people brought about by the poverty imposed on them would have no choice than to thank the thieves for their benevolence.’
On the Edo State governorship election, Omoragbon reiterated his call or the cancellation because his party was unlawfully excluded from the poll.
He vowed to probe the Gov Godwin Obaseki administration when fresh governorship election is ordered and he is elected governor.
‘Edo State with its current temporary occupant at Osadebey House, will be made to answer to the people why in their first tenure, they denied the people of the State their legitimate COVID-19 palliative by hiding them for their own selfish use. Let Godwin Obaseki be taking stock because, our government would probe every one of them when we take over,’ he said.