Following the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the last presidential and national assembly elections, some persons have concluded plans to stage a protest under the theme Occupy Nigeria.

File photo: Voting

According to Coalition for Defence Democracy in Nigeria, the paid miscreants have been mobilized by some politicians who are not pleased with the outcome of the polls to shutdown the nation.

Addressing newsmen on Sunday, Okpokwu Ogenyi, who spoke on behalf of the BoT, claimed that the planned protest is being championed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party.

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His text below.

Gentlemen of the press, since the announcement of the results for the presidential election held on Saturday February 23, 2019, those that lost in the election have been reacting to their losses. Some of these reactions have been by way of intellectual engagement in which the candidates and their supporters express their improved understanding of how democracy and political dynamics operate in the Nigerian context.

The more sincere ones among them have admitted the near impossibility of unseating a performing president through the ballot hence the overwhelming win of President Muhammadu Buhari who won on the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket.

Some losers have, however, been sore in defeat. They denounced the result with the worst choice of words possible.

What must be given to them however is that they have been creative enough to limit their bellicosity to inciting utterances and body language, which they possibly expect their supporters to decode and descend on the streets with violent protests.

This development is the reason that the Coalition for Defence Democracy in Nigeria, CDDN, is not aligned with those that have been asking Atiku to call and congratulate President Buhari. There is no basis for that because it will amount to creating a situation where the loser in an election must validate the victor’s win.

It is enough that the home nations of the international observers once misled by the PDP have sent their congratulatory messages to Nigeria and President Buhari. While Nigeria does not rely on their endorsement to validate its electoral processes, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, the African Union, scores of African countries and other friends of Nigeria have congratulated President Buhari, which they would not have done had the election failed to meet the minimum threshold for acceptability.

The PDP is being backed by several ethnic jingoist organizations that present as socio-cultural organizations, religious bigots as well as pro-corruption groups and individuals.

Like their client, these people have limited themselves to threats and incitement without actually backing their threat of violence and destabilization with actions. This restraint on the part of PDP and its supporting organizations has now been found to be a Trojan as they have outsourced their violent protests through a consultancy to “Occupy Nigeria”.

“Occupy Nigeria”, a misappropriation of the slogan under which Nigerians resisted PDP misrule in 2012, is now being used by these protest consultants to threaten the peace of the country. The group that now goes by the name has threatened to shut down Abuja on Monday and what we have found out is that they plan to spread the protest to other cities if the Abuja legs proves successful.

CDNN finds this attempt at using the result of the election to cause mayhem when the international community, including countries that were initially apprehensive of the conduct of the election, has accepted the outcome.

We observed that Occupy Nigeria is now expressing disappointment in the endorsement of the polls by the international community when its clients where euphoric at the time these same foreign countries were harassing the Nigerian government on the basis of lies told against the administration of President.

It has not been able to been able to present any compelling evidence to support why it is rejecting an election adjudged to be free, fair and credible by all stakeholders except the PDP and its lackey groups.

The protests planned by Occupy Nigeria are therefore provocative, irresponsible and an attempt to create conditions that will degrade security in the country while providing excuses for those earlier mobilized by Atiku to attempt a forceful takeover of the government.

CDNN is therefore warning Occupy Nigeria to behave within acceptable parameters defined by Nigerian laws as any attempt to provoke crisis would be met with disproportionate citizens’ response. Other measures include laying bare the relationship that exists between it and PDP as well as Atiku.

Occupy Nigeria must take note that nobody has the monopoly of mischief and violence. It is receiving money to hold its protests but there are millions of Nigerians that will counter those violent outings on the streets out of patriotism and their love and appreciation for the leadership he is providing to the country.

Any attempt to destabilize the peace of the nation will therefore be decisively rejected by Nigerians. Occupy Nigeria will fail worse that Boko Haram and other defunct terrorist groups that had attempted to destroy Nigeria.

The practice in Nigeria is for anyone aggrieved by the outcome of elections should approach the Election Tribunals up to the Supreme Court to seek redress.

Instead of holding questionable protests, Nigerians should task the organizers of this charade to come forward with workable initiatives to help President Buhari deliver on his promises to Nigerians. Part of the progress we should make as a nation is for the youths not to be misled by agents of destabilization that are bent on triggering copy-cat revolution in a country where it is least needed.