Kenneth Okonkwo, a Nollywood actor and politician, blasted President Bola Tinubu’s Sunday address to Nigerians about the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests, calling it boring and annoying.
Recall that President Tinubu addressed Nigerians on Sunday in the aftermath of nationwide protests against rising commodity prices and economic hardship.
However, Okonkwo, a former spokesman for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council in 2023, stated that it would have been preferable if the President had not delivered such an address, which he believes is ‘bad’.
He also asked Tinubu to fire his media advisers for leaking his address a day before it was broadcast nationwide.
“The people are protesting for hunger and hardship, deprivation and degradation. And the president was compelled to speak,” Okonkwo said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday.
He added: “I wish they did not compel him. If I were a media aide, I would have preferred there was no speech at all because bad speech is worse than no speech at all.
“In addition to the speech being empty and very annoying, it was even leaked before the day.”
Okonkwo claimed that President Tinubu has failed to meet any of the demonstrators’ demands. He stressed the value of protest in a democratic society while condemning the violent actions of a minority.
He stated that the President should have simplified his cabinet and reviewed his choice to purchase a new presidential jet.
Okonkwo said that instead of eliminating the petrol subsidy and replacing it with ineffective palliatives, the government should reintroduce subsidies on petrol and electricity tariffs, since he feels that “subsidy itself is a palliative.”
He went on to say that the current administration has lowered Nigerians’ standard of living and should instead focus on increasing productivity by creating a favorable business climate.
Aside from Okonkwo, significant personalities such as Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana (SAN), and political organizations like as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) have aso opposed the President’s speech.
