Banky W says the youth in Nigeria can’t possibly protest all the problems in the country.
In an interview with HipTV, the actor and musician spoke of the backlash that trailed the government’s Twitter ban.
“It’s a shame that despite all the issues we’re facing as a nation, Twitter deleted a tweet of the president and the best course they thought up is to ban a service young Nigerians use in expressing themselves and in business,” he said.
“We’re as unsafe as we’ve never been. Kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, and robbery are on the rise. Our educational system is in tatters; healthcare is nothing to write home about. Everywhere you turn in Nigeria, there are issues.
“It’s sad leaders lose all sense of empathy to dialogue and the automatic reaction is ‘ban’. There were [EndSARS] protests. But, instead of a dialogue where they do what the youth were asking, they started looking for scapegoats.
“CBN froze people’s accounts. FG seized passports. It’s almost like young people are in an abusive relationship with our country.”
Banky W said he hopes the Twitter and #EndSARS situations would push the youth into action.
“I hope actions that like this push us to the wall, where we decide to speak up, stand up, push back, and fight for this democracy,” he said.
“Not in a violent way but that we stand up for democracy; move from protest to power. Honestly, we can’t protest about every problem we have. But we can focus on power and those we allow to get into positions of power.
“I mean, all of this is going on and where are our elected representatives? Where our senators? Where are those supposed to be speaking for us and fighting on our behalf? Surprisingly enough, everybody’s quiet.
“Young people in Nigeria and outside need to use this as motivation, as fuel. Let’s organise. 2023 is really not that far away.
“Let’s start from the ground up. The problem is from the top down, but we can start lower and push back. We can organise ourselves and vote. It’s time to take a stand. We have to be the generation all of this nonsense stops with.”