By Seyi Babalola
Mr Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, has claimed that the sponsors of the #EndBadGovernance protest were gunning to change governance in the country.
He claimed they were scheming to undermine the country’s democracy, but Nigerians repelled the attempt.
His reaction occurred immediately after the Council of State meeting attended by two immediate previous presidents, Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari.
Alake said he would not call it a protest but a calculated attempt to effect a change in government.
His words: “I call it a movement to effect a change of regime by force, which was also resisted.
“And so, you know, the Council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change government. If anybody is not satisfied with the government, any current administration, there is always an election coming, so you wait for election and cast your vote.
“So the NSA briefed the Council on the security situation and allayed fears all round.
“So after the NSA’s briefing, generally, he allayed everybody’s fears and spoke on the tightness of the security around the country, and also reassured all and sundry that nobody will be allowed to truncate our hard-earned democracy.
“Any change of government has to be through the ballots and not through the barrel of the gun or insurrection or any other unconstitutional means; only through the ballot box can any government be changed. And he reassured on the security readiness of all security agencies in the country, to secure our territorial integrity and to protect Nigeria’s democracy.”
