A renowned public policy firm, Nextier, has urged the Federal Government to effect the arrest, investigation and prosecution of promoters of #IgboMustGo ethnic hate campaign through the Lagospedia X (formerly Twitter) handle.

Nextier, also demanded that the outcome of the process should be made public to further deter such actions from any part of the country.

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It will be recalled that the Lagospedia X handle had in the wake of the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests, started a campaign urging Igbo residents in the Southwest to vacate and “go back home” while urging Yorubas to effect the agenda. It also told the Yoruba in Southeast to return home.

The Lagos State has distanced itself from the hate campaign but no arrests or investigations by security agencies had been reported to the public of the tweet which many have condemned as capable of igniting social political turmoil in the country.

But Nextier has expressed concern that “the type of anti-immigrants and anti-Islamic sentiments that are being used in the UK by far-right agitators to attack Muslims and immigrants is also being applied to mobilise an ethnically targeted attack in Lagos”.

In its report titled – Red Flags from the #EndBadGovernance Protest in Nigeria – Nextier further advised that considering the absence of clear steps to address protesters’ grievances, the government should work through its relevant departments to put in place measures that directly address the reasons for the protests.

The Nextier report was jointly authored by Dr. Ben Nwosu, an Associate Consultant at Nextier, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, as well as Dr. Ndu Nwokolo, a Managing Partner at Nextier and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Government at the University of Birmingham, UK, who is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime, and Security at York University Canada.

They argued that the heads of relevant government departments should clarify that their measures are targeted at addressing hunger and high living costs, while noting that trust and hope in government are at an all-time low, with the government at the centre being the worst hit, a situation ghat needs to be reversed in order to dismantle the protest mindset culture.

Nwosu and Nwokolo further recommended “the government should address the problems of local refineries and private large-scale and modular refineries to address the high cost of internal oil consumption since the rising cost is tied to the cost of petrol.

“Some government policies, like intervention through the Nigerian Credit Corporation, are not well known to the masses. Strategic communication should be improved to popularise policies that could directly ameliorate citizens’ sufferings.

“Law enforcement, under conditions of crisis, is usually quick to resort to extreme measures. This is probably due to lack of other equipment for engaging protesters. The government should invest in training and equipment for thenation’s security forces to circumvent the careless use of live bullets that lead to loss of lives.

“Arrested individuals who are proven to have been involved in arson, vandalism, and other forms of criminality should be made to face the full weight of the law.” (Vanguard)

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