This weekend, citizens will be taking to the streets to tell the world who they support; Buhari, Tuface or the country as a whole.
It was gathered earlier in the week that each of the groups will be protesting with tags #IstandwithBuhari, #IstandwithTuface and #IstandwithNigeria. Each of the three protesting groups will be out in the streets to increase popularity with the masses and gather more support for their various aims.
The Guardian reports that of the three groups, #IstandwithTuface, a re-enactment of the #OccupyNaija and #Enoughisenough protests is the group with the highest popularity and resilience.
Popular music icon, Innocent Idibia, popularly known as Tuface, is leading a nationwide protest against the government and for good governance.
The #IStandWithBuhari; a group, which sponsors are yet to be unveiled, immediately launched a counter protest in support of the government; while a fairly unknown group, led by those who refuse to be bystanders in the emerging power show, is floating #IStandWithNigeria.
The #IStandWithNigeria group, will on Monday, February 6, assemble by 8:00am at the National Stadium, Surulere in Lagos and march to the National Theatre, Iganmu. According to Bemigbo Awala, one of the organisers, “we are marching on the two national icons that epitomize our decline as a nation.
“We want to state very clearly and peacefully that #IStandWithNigeria and the country must work for all of us and all of us must work for Nigeria,” he wrote on his Facebook page yesterday.
Ahead of the clash of the mega rallies, it has been a feverish war on the social media space with each canvassing for supporters and maligning the others.
The group in support of the government had on Wednesday in a Facebook post stirred some controversy when it announced its nationwide solidarity rally for February 5 to take place on the same day Tuface had earlier fixed his protest march.
Not taking the bait, the #IStandWithTuface group immediately moved their rally to Monday, February 6, to avoid an impending clash with the president’s supporters, while announcing they intend to hold the march on the day President Muhammadu Buhari would be returning from his 10-day vacation in London.
Despite the controversies generated by the much-publicized protest, including the warning by the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, stopping the protest, the ‘African Queen’ crooner yesterday vowed to go ahead with the protest.
Meanwhile, the police have been advised to desist from becoming tyrannical by attempting to stop the Tuface Idibia-led rally. A pro-democracy and Non-Governmental Organization, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said the Nigeria police should not attempt to stop an idea whose time has come just as it affirmed that the peaceful nation-wide rallies called by the reputable social crusader and musician, Idibia is in compliance with a plethora of human rights provisions enshrined in the Chapter 4 of the Nigerian Constitution.