The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has cautioned individuals planning a nationwide protest to exercise caution, as the outcome of such action may be unpredictable.
Onanuga previously accused supporters of former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi of orchestrating the planned protest.
In a telephone interview with Sunday Vanguard, Onanuga clarified his earlier statement, saying, “My post is just to highlight that the people who are organizing this so-called nationwide protest are members of Labour party, they are Peter Obi supporters, so that’s my own take of it, it’s my own opinion so I am not going to say more than this.”
When reminded of activist Omoyele Sowore’s statement that no one can stop an action whose time has come, Onanuga emphasized his lack of interest in the protesters’ goals.
He stated, “That is their problem, I am not interested in what they want to do. I am just trying to say, look these are the people that are saying, we must do Kenya, so these are the people mobilizing, that is my own point.”
Onanuga acknowledged the right to protest in a democracy but expressed concern about the potential for protests to be hijacked and spiral out of control, citing the unpredictability of the EndSars movement. He also warned against the use of language that could be interpreted as calling for a coup d’etat.
He stated, “Revolution means you are calling for a coup d’etat, that’s the meaning of it and that’s the point that I am making, nothing more than that.”
When asked for evidence to support his claim that Peter Obi’s supporters are behind the planned protest, Onanuga suggested analyzing their social media posts.
He said, “Check their handles and see what they are posting, just follow what they have been posting. What I did was to do content analysis of what these people are posting as a journalist.”
