By Cheta Enyoghasi
The ongoing protest in Nigeria, code named #EndBadGovernance, aimed at forcing the leadership to intervene in the skyrocketing prices of food items, has been boycotted by all South-East states.
However, many believe that South-Easterners joined the protest in a different way but days before the protest, various Igbo leaders and groups warned the Igbo not to participate.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-political group, made press releases dissuading the Igbos at home and in the diaspora from participating in the protest.
Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, warned against joining the protest, saying the government will turn the agitation against them and accuse them of being the masterminds.
In Lagos and Abuja, Igbo traders also failed to join a herd of protesters who stormed the streets to ask the president of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to reduce the cost of living and end hunger in the country.
In several parts of the South East, youths formed football teams in various streets and played soccer as their own kind of protest. They also gathered at drinking joints, treating themselves to drinks and chicken as their own kind of protest.
Both the Governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, and the Minister of Works, Engr. Dave Umahi, commended the South East zone for heeding the call not to join in the protests, noting that the action prevented needless loss of Igbo lives, businesses, and property while showing good faith to the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
