26-year-old undergraduate climbs mast to protest over poor economy

chika ebuzor

September 12, 2018 8:55 PM

According to reports, the incident occurred on Wednesday, September 12, 2018, along Aya road.

A 26-year-old student of the National Open University (NOUN), Nura Iliyasu, in a bid to show his frustration over the hardship in the economy, climbed a telecom mast in Abuja.

According to Vanguard, the incident occurred on Wednesday, September 12, 2018, along Aya road.

The Daily Sun also reports that Iliyasu called on the opposition to unite and present a formidable opponent that will send President Buhari packing.

The report also stated that he distributed a flyer to explain why he embarked on the protest.

Ilyasu said he is ready to sacrifice his life for the country to get better, adding that he will not get down from the mast.

He said “I am on hunger strike to protest and register my grievances on the condition of the country; I will remain here for the next seven days and I do not mind if I die here.

“If my dying on this mast will change the economy of this country, then I choose to die for others to live a good life.

“ I have not eaten for days and also other Nigerians, if I die on this mast I am not worried, no roads in the states only in the city of Abuja you can see good roads.

‘’The doctors have said that a man can survive only on water without food for some days, I believe I can and if I cannot I will die.”

His grievances

Ilyasu said he is protesting over the “battered and mutilated economy, spearheaded by devalued Nigerian currency comparative to the United States dollar and other foreign currencies; affront, total and disobedience to the rule of law with impunity, thereby rubbishing judicial independence, checks and balances as enshrined in Nigeria’s Constitution; uneven and selective war against corruption as amplified by the political stigmatisation and prosecution of political opposition under the aegis‎ of anti-corruption."

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“Life today in Nigeria is evidently not dissimilar to the Hobbesian State of nature in which ‘life is too nasty, brutish and short.

“Hyperinflation is strangulating our people, starvation is prematurely snuffing life out of our people; deprivation and hopelessness is stagnating our youth progress from achieving the perennial slogan of ‘leaders of tomorrow.’

“Political hypocrisy and presence of selfish greed and [un]patriotism fuelled by insatiable and bottomless stomach, had combined to cause perpetual indirection and leadership bewilderment," The Daily Sun added.

PDP fires Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently criticised President Buhari's handlin of the economy.

According to the party, Buhari has a poor understanding of current global economic dynamics.

chika ebuzor