The chief economist at SPM Professionals, Paul Alaje, on Friday, faulted the trio ideas of petrol subsidy removal, hike in electricity tariff and naira devaluation by the President Bola Tinubu administration.

Alaje, who was a guest on Channels Television, asked the Federal Government to listen to the cry of Nigerians amid the hardship and poverty in the country.

“The gain from the protest is for the government to hear the cry of the people and for the government to know that the people can also checkmate their actions,” he said.

He said Nigeria loses N350 billion daily from the ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests.

“But it comes with costs. When people are not able to move, like what happened yesterday. At least the cost we are able to estimate is about N350 billion.”

Dialogue

Angry Nigerians defied warning by the authorities and took to the major cities on Friday for a second day to decry a severe cost of living crisis and bad governance.

According to reports, over than a dozen people were killed when law enforcement forces fired on protesters on Thursday in several northern states including Borno, which was also among those to introduce a day-long curfew as part of efforts to curtail the unrest.

Organisers of the protests, which also took place in the commercial hub of Lagos and the capital Abuja, had called for Nigerians to show their displeasure at soaring food prices and three-decade high inflation over 10 days of demonstrations.

But Alaje believes that the Nigerian government and the organisers of the protests should come to a round table to resolve their differences.

He said the protests, If allowed to continue, would hurt the nation’s economy as many people were scared of opening their businesses.

“That is why it is important for the government and protester to come together to have a dialogue or negotiation regarding where the future should be.

“It is not like protests happened everywhere but the fear of protests made a lot of people to close their shops. Many banks were shut, insurance companies were not functioning. So it has its own major effect,” Alaje added. (Channels TV)

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