Why I Wrote A Book On #EndBadGovernance Protests –Lanre Osho

Comrade Moshood Lanre Osho, a human rights activist, is the Deputy Coordinator, Project Tracking, Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), a civil society organization.

In this interview with Team@orientactualmags.com, he talked about his new book, ‘The Voice Of Change’, his role in the #EndBadGovernance Protests and other issues.

Read On:

You recently published a book ‘The Voice Of Change’  and the book launch event was held in Ilorin a few days ago, can you tell us about the book?

Thank you very much, you see the book is all about the #EndBadGovernance Protests  that were held in August 2024, and you will remember that the protests in question exposed Nigerian leaders, it portrayed Nigeria as a country that does not cater for the needs of the citizens, the August 2024 protests exposed Nigeria to the world and made the whole world  see Nigeria as a country that is battling with a lot of challenges.

The president tried all he could to pacify people through  the 36 state governors, the traditional rulers, the religious leaders, he asked them go back to their various communities  and plead with the people not to hit the streets but people in some northern states including the FCT ,Lagos State and other states  went ahead to hold  peaceful protests, but  here in Kwara State nothing happened, I wrote to the Commissioner of Police and the DSS to notify and inform them that I was planning  to mobilize one million kwara youths for a peaceful protest on October 1^, 2024, but to my surprise the commissioner of police invited me and we discussed the matter, so, he urged me not to mobilize people for the protest ,I told him that it will be a venue- based protest  but after our discussion I discovered that  going ahead with it may result in negative developments.

I was reminded that we witnessed a lot of protests that turned violent when the August protests were held in Nigeria and likewise here in Kwara State during the EndSARs protests, we witnessed what happened to FEMTECH  in Taiwo ,Shoprite,  and so  on where the citizens broke into  shops and stole goods, so, I was advised to shelve the idea to prevent a recurrence and I took a  decision  to write a book on the August protests so as to let people know about it , the book  dips  deeper into the root causes of  the August protests and examined the complex  relationship between the citizens and the government when it comes to protests and demonstrations,  in the book , we advised those in government and the aspiring leaders on how they can handle protesters  without going violent, so,  that is what the book is all about, the book also talked about the eras of Awolowo ,Tafa Balewa  and how they governed and  managed people easily you see that  we have been having a lot of challenges,   Nigeria is  facing a lot of challenges, poor power supply, hunger , insecurity and other things, those are the things that have made people get angry and the government cannot continue to pacify citizens and ask them not to hit the  streets despite the fact that protest is not a crime in Nigeria because section 33 and 40 of the constitution are very clear, so,  peaceful assembly is allowed in Nigeria but the security agencies will still say people should not protest ,why are they afraid of having people hitting the streets?  Why is the government afraid of peaceful protest? Why is it that  the citizens are also afraid of embarking on peaceful protest? These are the things the book talked about, there’s nobody who will read the book whether those in government, the aspiring leaders or anyone who will not know how to manage protesters and allow true democracy across the nooks and crannies of the country.

You have forcibly argued that citizens should be allowed to stage a peaceful protest but the fear is that it may turn violent, in what ways do you think people can protest peacefully?

Thank you very much, you see, the anti- torture act of 2017 is very well clear, it cautions security agencies against manhandling or molesting protesters, this anti-torture act also mandates the security agencies to provide security for the protesters but the reverse is the case in Nigeria that was what caused the EndSARs protests, you will see that the Nigerian youths hit the streets to protest against   police brutality, so, why are the police tear gassing protesters? Why are the police manhandling, maltreating protesters? The book also looked into what the security agencies need to do and how they can manage the protesters, majority of the peaceful protests that have turned violent were because of the actions of the security agents they are supposed to provide security for the protesters and ensure it is not violent.

 Once it turns violent, it will not be  in the best interest of the security agencies or the people  ,we have witnessed what happened in Kano where properties belonging to government  were vandalized by the protesters who are even under age children,  so, the book also discouraged the citizens from damaging ,vandalizing properties belonging to government all in the name of the peaceful protests looting shops in the name of protests is very wrong .

Okay, thank you for letting people know about these important issues, who will you blame for looting and willful destruction of properties during protests?

Thank you very much, you see, recently we have witnessed instances here and there  where people distribute food items all  in the name of the palliative  as a result of the economic hardships that people are facing.

The poverty rate, hunger, out of school children, insecurity and others have made things very difficult for the people, so,  those in government need to do more to ameliorate the sufferings of the people, ensure  good governance, bring democracy closer to the people.

Failure to do all these will make citizens  hit the  streets  but when those in government ensure transparency, if the government ensures good governance, there won’t be protests here and there, we have seen protests in other countries which did not turn violent, protests can also be managed without such turning violent but more importantly, ensuring good governance will help a lot, if people have access to quality  education, good and accessible health care, ,good roads , stable electricity and others, there won’t be protests, although citizens will still ask for more  that’s why we are human beings we will continue to ask for more.

What government needs to do is to be open, what caused the August 2024 protests is lack of transparency, hunger, high food prices, removal of petrol subsidy ,so, these are the problems at the moment  government  should listen to the citizens, the moment government ensures good governance and transparency there won’t be protests here and there, and where there is no protest there’s won’t be violence.

The book advised the citizens to shun violence and also advised the aspiring leaders to allow peaceful protest

You didn’t study Mass Communication and you owned a very popular newsstand in those days and this had helped you develop interest in current affairs, why did you dump the business?

Thank you very much , as a young boy, I liked to read newspapers, listen to radio and watch news on television, I think this made me get interested in establishing a newsstand  at Ita-Amo and we all know that reading culture is fading away, people are no more reading  newspapers like  they do in the 60s,70s and 80s this social media of a thing has diverted people’s attention to other things.

 That’s why we have been recording mass failure in WAEC, NECO and other examinations, so, print media  is no more lucrative and we have been having problems with the sales of the newspapers because people have access to the  Internet  and they can read 10 newspapers via their android phones without laying their hands on the hardcopy, so,  the  sales of newspapers is no more lucrative and that was why I had to  diversify , my experience has been useful  because I have a lot of friends  and I still sustain the habit of reading  I have written  more  than 400 articles and I have published 3 books and  I am not stopping there, as we speak, Iam  working on another book which will be launched in 2027 , it is a book  that  has to do with Nigeria, so, it is a book that will take me like 2 years to finish because I will have to travel across the 36 states  to gather   some more facts.

Yes, Iam a human rights activist and I am based in Kwara State where we are monitoring things but we  need to continue writing and we will not stop writing, and we will not be deterred  with all these challenges and everything thank you very much.

You are a stakeholder in ENETSUD, what are the objectives and goals of the organization?

Thank you very much, the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD) is an anti -corruption civil society organization and the objective and goals of ENETSUD is to make sure that  public funds work for the public, to hold government accountable, to make sure there is transparency  and inclusive governance.

  We have 5 radio weekly programmes  to sensitize the people of Kwara  State and Nigeria as a whole , we also use social media to sensitize the people,  we also institute lawsuits  against corrupt federal or state officials  and  we are in partnership with the anti- corruption agencies,  we have written more than 10 petitions against federal and state MDAs that diverted  public fund, as far as Kwara State is concerned,  as far as Nigeria is concerned, ENETSUD is the leading society organization , it is a reputable civil society organization and we have not lost focus and we will never lose  focus  in respect of holding  government accountable and ensuring and transparency.

People have accused your organization of being willing to be a friend to opposition leaders?

Thank you very much , the thing is that no government wants to be open, no government wants to be checked and a civil society organization is there to check the excesses  of those in government, governors ,senators, members of house of reps ,state houses of assembly , most ot them see themselves above the citizens  and a civil society organization will  come out to sensitize the citizen  and say ‘don’t listen to them they are not representing you ,they are representing their interests’, so, those in government will not like that.

Civil society organizations will report to the security agencies when they notice anomalies the civil society organizations do not have the power to prosecute but they have the power to report any corrupt person  to anti- corruption agency and at the same time  institute lawsuits ,  a serious government  that is ready to serve the interest of the people must see civil  society organizations as partners and not enemies. 

You want to be seen as partners, but has there been an instance where your organization commended the government?

Yes, we have always commended the good work of the government we were in partnership with this present government, when it came on board in respect of social audit because we have been at the fore front advocacy for the  domestication of freedom of  information act in Kwara State but when this government came on board , the governor, Mallam Abdulrahman  Abdulrasaq  himself held virtual meeting with the founder of  ENETSUD,  Professor Alagbonsi Abdulateef and he told Abdullateef  that  God has blessed him before he came into power  and he is not in government to steal money  and will thus promote social audit and he asked us to join his government to do this and we accepted  because it will expose corruption in respect of  government -funded projects but  we don’t know why government terminated the social audit and aborted the partnership.

 Government wanted us to report to them and we are not working for the government we are working for the citizens because the money expended on the projects executed by the government belongs to the taxpayers, it is not from those in government.

If the government had requested that you should channel whatever information you want to release to the public through them don’t you think it was just a way of avoiding embarrassing situations, for example you may have assumed that you have discovered an anomaly but when due diligence is done, it may turn out to be an innocent error that has been corrected?

You see, there is monitoring and evaluation  office  which is the one that always releases document to us  I am the focal person for ENETSUD, the governor’s  SSA on  Monitoring and Evaluation is the focal person for the government and we relate, I will relate with him he will hand over project documents to me and I am the one in charge of mobilizing our technical team to the site to do the reevaluation to quantify the government- funded projects and at the end the day we will prepare our report when we prepare the report, I will hand over   the report to the SSA Monitoring and Evaluation  but  at the same time, we will post the same report on social media but  the government doesn’t like the idea of  releasing anything on social media they said the more we release reports on social media, the more the opposition will use it to attack them and they now said that they couldn’t  take it any longer ,so, that was what made them  abort social audit but we told them that time that we are not working for you, we are for the public you can’t expect us to deliver report to you at the end of the day you will not prosecute  those that were involved in  corruption, so, we will not recover the money.  For example, the Ilesha- Baruba- Gwanara  road project, it took the present government more than 18 months  before they could act on our report, so, a lot of things are happening  but there’s a way that we can manage the partnership but the government is not ready to listen because if government is ready to listen I don’t see anything bad in reporting to you and posting the same report on social media , the government is expected to prosecute the ministry and agency officials  that get involved in diversion of public fund .

Like I noted earlier, the government will definitely want to be in control of information to avoid embarrassing situations,  if an information is already available in public domain  and after due diligence is done, it was later discovered to be a product of communication gap  and not true ,  the government will begin to explain to the public which may erode people’s confidence in government?

You see if the government has nothing to hide,  there will be no problem, the government is there  to serve the people , why is the government withholding documents? All the government activities are   supposed to be posted on the state’s website for the people, civil  society organizations, journalists and others to have access to the documents, for instance we are not even supposed to partner with the government on project re-evaluation because all these documents are supposed to be uploaded on the state website  for the citizens  to have access to it  but the government has refused to be open,  and to be transparent by uploading the project details on the state website, so, we  will continue to advocate for the freedom of information act, it is a tool that the citizens, civil society organizations and  individuals can use to engage the  government on how their money is being spent but when the government says it had nothing to hide  we accepted it and the social audit was designed to prove it  I don’t see any reason why government will say that we should not release information on  social media because government is to serve the people, the information is for the people, so, the only thing that the government did not do that they still need to improve on is to fight corruption, so, the government is fighting corruption silently and you can’t fight corruption in silently, when we report that on  so so and so project this is the amount that was mismanaged instead of the government to query the officer ,the ministry that executed the project , the government will not do anything and at times it will take them 18 months, it will take them 10 months to act on our report, so, this shows that the government is not ready to fight corruption and our civil society organization is not an agent of the government of the day, so, we are to work for the citizens , we are to promote transparency and accountability, we are to hold  the government accountable, we are to use the media including social media to hold government accountable and promote transparency.

.

Can you please tell us about yourself?

Thank you very much , I am Comrade Moshood Lanre Osho, I am a Kwara State- based human rights activist,  I am an author, a columnist with the Kwara express online weekly and  I  am also the Deputy Coordinator , Project Tracking, ENETSUD-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you