The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) said that the proposed nationwide protests portend grave dangers for an economy which is already in a very fragile state.
Speaking, the director/CEO of LCCI, Dr. Muda Yusuf said that the protests could inflict an estimated daily loss of N400 billion, if not properly managed.
He added that the consequences of such a huge loss for the country and the citizens would be very severe, saying that there is a high risk of shut downs and disruptions in major sectors of the economy.
According to Yusuf, these include trade and commerce, manufacturing, entertainment, transportation, logistics, financial services, hospitality industry, agriculture, aviation, ICT, and construction sectors.
“This is in addition to risks to lives and properties of innocent citizens and corporate bodies. Safety of government assets are also at risk.”
He however commended the Inspector General of the police for acknowledging the rights of the citizens to protest and offering to protect the genuine protesters.
“We plead with the organisers of the protests to cooperate with the police to make the planned protests peaceful and orderly.
“It is in the overall interest of all for this to happen. Peacefulness of a protest does not detract from the potency of its messaging,” he urged.
He noted that the protest organisers should not offer a platform for elements in the country who have criminal intentions and whose agenda is to inflict pains on innocent citizens and corporate organisations and destruction of public assets, saying that “we cannot fix a problem by promoting such negative tendencies.”
CPPE advised that the duration of the protests should be short, possibly one day, adding experience has shown that the chances of protests degenerating into chaos and anarchy increases with the duration of the protests.
“Prolonged protests create opportunities for hoodlums, miscreants and other criminal elements in the society to build momentum to unleash mayhem and destruction on the country.
“Over 90 per cent of employed Nigerians are in the informal sector. Employees in this space are dependent on daily income and any disruption to their economic activities beyond 24 hours could snowball into major social unrest. This underlines the country’s vulnerability to prolonged protests,” he stated
CPPE urged the administration to expeditiously implement its economic stabilisation plan to ease production costs and ultimately reduce inflationary pressures.
Yusuf added that there is also an urgent need to prioritise fiscal frugality and transparency in public sector in all tiers and across all levels of government coupled with appropriate signalling and messaging that reflect current economic conditions, noting that these are essential to earn the confidence of the generality of the people.
