Patriotism Awareness Forum (PAF) Commends and Congratulates Nigerians for Remaining Calm, Peaceful and Unprovoked

3rd August 2024

Press Statement 

Patriotism Awareness Forum (PAF) Commends and Congratulates Nigerians for Remaining Calm, Peaceful and Unprovoked

The Patriotism Awareness Forum (PAF) commends and congratulates Nigerians for their resilience, patience, perseverance, sacrifice and understanding by remaining calm and peaceful in the face of provocation of incitement due to the assault and suppression of their fundamental right to movement and economic livelihood by the two days of a needless and failed protest and for going about their legitimate businesses and shunning the politically motivated protest meant to manipulate them for reasons other than national interest.

We at PAF urge Nigerians to continue to remain resolute in shunning the so-called protest and keep faith with the Bola Tinubu administration to see through the bold reforms it has planted to place Nigeria on the paths of solid economic growth and progress.

In a release issued in Lagos, PAF asserted that it is a fact that Nigerians are going through a lot economically at this point in time, just like citizens of other countries all over the world. It's also an incontrovertible fact that the Tinubu administration is frontally confronting our economic challenges with policies and programmes which require time to come to fruition. 

PAF posits that what Nigerians need at this critical time in the country's political history, is for all hands to be on deck to ensure that the re-engineering of the Nigerian state for the collective good of all Nigerians in the long run by the President Bola Tinubu administration is supported and complemented and not to resort to acts capable of sowing seeds of discord and destabilization and thereby worsening our existing fragile economic, political and social situation.

According to PAF, 'From our monitoring of the Day 2 of the protest called by faceless and unknown organizers and which is meant to incite Nigerians to violence as uncovered by security agencies beforehand and sadly witnessed in some Northern states on Day 1, we can confidently report that Day 2 in all the states was one of huge relief as Nigerians shunned the protest and went about their legitimate business. We observed that though there were pockets of protests in very few states, they were largely devoid of the degree of violence observed in some northern states on the Day 1 of the protest.

Thus PAF wholeheartedly commend Nigerians for being patriotic in keeping faith with democracy by remaining peaceful and maintaining peace which is an essential ingredient for progress and development.

'Even in states where violence broke out on Day 1 of the protest, we observed that the people have come to the realization that they were manipulated and therefore decided to shun any form of protest and violence on the Day 2, while focusing on acts to engender peace, economic growth and national development which is commendable.

PAF cannot but commend the security agencies for their professionalism, diligence and patriotism to fatherland by engaging the protesters in the very few states where it occured on Day 2 and ensuring that all threats to law and order were neutralized. We call on them to maintain the same level of professionalism for the remaining days of the protest in which we also hope that the protesters will observe the rules of engagement by ensuring that they conduct themselves within the ambit of the law.

However, we at PAF regret and condemn the violence recorded in some northern states on the first day of the so-called protest and we charge the security agencies to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book according to the law.

'We equally want to appeal to the Nigerian state to come to the aid of innocent citizens, families and businesses who suffered the misfortune of being killed , robbed, attacked, burnt and looted by the protesters on Day 1 of the protest, which is unfortunate and condemnable".

God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Thank you.

Yours Sincerely,

Nelson Ekujumi,       

Convener

Peter Claver Oparah 

Co-Convener.