Despite the faceless nature of the promoters of looming nationwide protest, sources in the security forces at the weekend suggested that there are at least three key demands.

The sources, who spoke barely four days before the planned protest, said the promoters and sources of funding were known to security forces, quoting intelligence available to them.

Additionally, they said the aim of those who are organizing the protest is to make the government of the day very unpopular as part of the larger agenda connected to the campaigns ahead of 2027.
The nation has been gripped by tension as some Nigerians, aggrieved about the state of the nation, especially the downturn in the economy, have scheduled to start a 10-day nationwide protest on Thursday, August 1.

From government to civil society groups, political leaders, traditional rulers and ethnic groups, among others, opposition to the protest has been huge with security forces, insisting that it could go out of hand and turn violent, citing the #EndSARS protest of 2020 which was believed to have been hijacked by hoodlums after violence crept in.

Sympathizers of the promoters, meanwhile, in a counter position, say it is the constitutional right of Nigerians to protest, saying security forces owe them the responsibility of protecting them.
Multiple security sources suggested to Sunday Vanguard at the weekend that intelligence had shown that the promoters of the looming protest had three main demands: End to hunger in the country, end to economic hardship and end to corruption.

“Yes, on the surface, they want to complain about hunger, they want to complain about economic hardship, they want to complain about corruption”, one of the sources said.

He added: “But will their protest eliminate hunger today? No. Is the government doing all it can to change that? Yes.

“Now, whether they distributed one bag of rice, that may be the effort of the Federal Government and there are levels, there are strata of the state make-up.

“What if state governments and other sub nationals add to what the Federal Government has brought? If the Federal Government brought 20 bags and states brought 15 and local governments brought 20 and you put them together, it becomes government intervention but if you are expecting that the Federal Government would do everything, then whatever they brought will be very small.

“There is intervention in fertilizer for instance, there is palliative, there is conditional cash transfer, there is students loan scheme they have just started”.

Another source said the protest promoters were known to security forces despite their facelessness to the general public.

The promoters are faceless in the sense that there is no clear leader and they do their mobilization in the social media.

But the security source said they were youths belonging to the Generation Z, also known as Gen Z, while also saying their sources of funding had been uncovered but said security forces would not move against them as that would not be in line with democratic tenets.
“Do we know these people (promoters)? Yes”, he said.

“What is the texture, the mixture of the organization? Yes, when we say opposition, opposition does necessarily mean political opposition.

“Opposition can also mean all persons and groups who are not inclined to accept the policies, programmes and initiatives of a government in power. “So when talk about opposition, it could also mean individuals, it could also mean CSOs, it could also mean politicians.
“So if you put them together, you can identify who does what”.

Aim

Speaking on the aim of the promoters, the source explained: “In this case, what is their aim, what is the aim of the protest?

“You should also understand our political culture, the African political culture and context.
“Part of the aim of those who are organizing this protest is to make the government of the day very unpopular. “And again, the politics of 2027 has started. They have started campaigns in a way that INEC is not involved.

“And the people are deploying all sorts of subterfuges to achieve long term objectives. There is also regime change objective that if it is not immediate it can be long term. “Bayo Onanuga’s reaction may be in the realization of that. He was not speaking security he was speaking politics.
“And Labour Party and Obi who understand his language have also replied. While they are doing that we are the people who are stressed as it is now left for security agents to intervene and mitigate the fallout”.