President Bola Tinubu speech has terribly Failed to connect to what our citizens are protesting about – Oby Ezekwesil
According to the report from the Sun News, In a pointed critique, Oby Ezekwesili, a prominent Nigerian public figure, expressed dissatisfaction with President Bola Tinubu’s recent address, asserting that it failed to meet the protesters’ demands. Ezekwesili’s comments, shared on the social media platform X, indicated a profound disappointment in the President’s approach.
Ezekwesili characterized the speech as resembling a page from your party manifesto, suggesting it was more about political rhetoric than addressing urgent public concerns.
She highlighted that President Tinubu “missed an opportunity to explain the immediate actions his administration had taken to address the demands of those on the streets.”
Furthermore, Ezekwesili called for President Tinubu to take decisive action regarding the violence against protesters. She urged him to “rein in the security operatives over the attack on protesters and order an investigation into the killing of protesters by security agents, emphasizing the need to fish out and punish those found guilty to serve as deterrence to others.”
In a broader critique of the President’s leadership, Ezekwesili recounted her reaction to the speech, describing it as terribly underwhelming and disconnected from the realities on the ground.
She stated, “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.”
She lamented the monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and outline convincing evidence-based actions needed to address the core issues of bad governance.
Ezekwesili further advised President Tinubu to embrace the responsibilities of his office rather than deflecting blame onto imaginary enemies. She remarked, “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.”
She underscored the importance of inclusive leadership, noting that a public leader should rally all citizens behind the common purpose of nation-building. “Ezekwesili criticized the apparent reluctance of Nigerian leaders to acknowledge their responsibilities, describing it as 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.”
Ezekwesili’s comments underscore the frustration and disappointment felt by many Nigerians regarding the government’s response to the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria protests, calling for genuine leadership and accountability from those in power.
