#RevolutionNow: Protest A Mere Child’s Play, Irritating – Adesina

President Muhammadu Buhari‘s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has described the #RevolutionNow protests held in different states on Wednesday as a mere child’s play and an irritation.

The President’s spokesman stated this while speaking on Channels TV Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.

Adesina further stated that the protests were carried out by only a few youths out of the 200 million Nigerians in the country.

He said, “Well, was it really a protest? By my estimation, it just seemed like a child’s play because protests by their very nature are spontaneous things, mass things. These are just a sprinkle of people trying to be funny. As far as I am concerned, it is nothing to worry about.”

“A revolution is always a mass thing, not a sprinkle of young boys and girls you saw yesterday in different parts of the country. I think it was just a funny thing to call it a revolution protest.”

The Presidential aide when asked if it was right for the presidency to condemn young Nigerians for protesting, Adesina remained adamant, insisting that the protests were nothing but irritation and he had a right to his opinion.

“In a country of 200 million people and if you see a sprinkle of people saying they are doing a revolution, it was a child’s play,” he said.

When asked if the government determines the seriousness of a protest only by its size, Adesina responded, “Well, it will always matter because if you said it was a revolution, revolutions by definition are quite well known.”

“Revolution is something that turns the normal order. What happened yesterday, would you call it a revolution? It was just an irritation, just an irritation and some people want to cause irritation in the country and what I will say is when things boil over, they boil over because you continue to heat them.”

“When you see pockets of heating up in the country, eventually they culminate in boiling over. So, Nigerians need to know that the country we get is what we use our hands to build.”

He further stated that the issues the protesters demonstrated against are not peculiar to Nigeria and so the protests were misguided.

Adesina stated that N-Power programme, which gives unemployed youths temporary jobs and monthly stipends was one of the ways the government was addressing joblessness.

Adesina said the President recognises the problems but they cannot be addressed in one fell swoop.

When asked if the clampdown on protests would continue, the President’s aide said, “The government will do whatever is right, whatever is required to maintain peace.”