According to the Federal Government, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) protesters who blocked a congested part of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway are “violating” the law.
On Tuesday, September 13, as part of a protest against the ongoing ASUU strike, students blocked the highway causing a road jam.
The Nigerian Constitution (as amended), according to Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, recognizes and protects citizens’ right to participate in public protests but forbids any Nigerian from “inflicting pain and inconvenience on other people.”
He said this while speaking to statehouse reporters following today’s Federal Executive Council meeting on September 14.
He pleaded with Nigerians to exercise greater patience, claiming that there are no other roads in those areas.
Fashola said, “Once again, I apologise and empathise with commuters who need that place to get on with their lives. It’s the place we left to the last really because it’s the most built-up area, the last six kilometers into Lagos; very densely populated and occupied. There’s very little room for alternative routes for people. So, you just have to bear with us.
I also heard that some aggrieved students under the aegis of NANS are going to the road to protest. My respectful view is that is not helpful at all to the citizens.
The right to protest is a very well-protected right in our Constitution, but it does not include the right to inflict pain and inconvenience on other people. And so, whilst the protests can go on, they should refrain from blocking the road in order to do their protests. That in itself is a violation of law.”
