Frank Donga: Lekki protest misconstrued as attempt to remove Buhari

Kunle Idowu, Nigerian actor better known as Frank Donga, says the Lekki protest in October 2020 was “misconstrued” as an attempt to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari.

Since the infamous shooting of protesters last year at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos, there has been a protracted conversation about the #EndSARS movement which included calls for good governance.

Amid the nationwide protest, however, some youths had seized the opportunity to chant anti-government songs while many others aired their displeasure about Buhari’s leadership style both verbally and with placards.

In a recent interview about his plans for foreign direct investment in Nigeria, Buhari had made reference to the protesters as “those young people who wanted to march here and remove me.”

But while speaking on the #EndSARS movement during his feature on Channels TV’s ‘Rubbin Minds‘ show, Donga noted that the Lekki protest was “misconstrued” and “twisted” as an attempt to unseat Buhari.

“We need to engage one another more. I see these cracks sometimes even among the youth. People want to go this way; others think the other way is the best idea. Then you have people dig up stuff against one another,” the actor said.

“Once you guys are not together, whoever is against you is going to exploit it. I think what the youth need to do is sit down, come together, find a common ground to unite. We need communication to win more people to our side.”

Donga also pointed out the need for more communication between the youth and other stakeholders in the country.

“As young people that are progressives, if protests alone won’t get the results you want but they’ve gotten some mileage, get other people to come in. During the Ojota subsidy protest in 2012, a lot of people came in,” he added.

“First it was this group. Then that group joined. NLC came up. Aviation systems came up and no planes were going to fly. It became that serious. Right now is the opportunity to begin to use it to communicate to people around.

“The transport workers, market women, teacher’s union, tanker drivers. Let them understand what the agitation is.

“We need to communicate more so that it’s not misconstrued and twisted as an opportunity for young people trying to take over the government by removing the president through Lekki. It sounds absurd but that’s what it is.”