‘Why I Risked My Life’: Man Who Climbed Mast To Protest Against Buhari Speaks

An undergraduate of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Nura Iliyasu, who climbed the top of a 50-meter-mast in Abuja to protest economic hardship in the country, has finally come down.

The frustrated undergraduate was protesting against “schizophrenic governance, souring foreign-exchange, high commodity prices, dysfunctional refineries and textile industries, elites medical tourism abroad, continued kidnappings,” among others.

He had vowed to spend the next seven days starting from yesterday, Wednesday, in hunger to demonstrate against what he described as “another season of dashed hope” under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

But following the intervention of security operatives, the NOUN graduate had a change of mind and decided to come down.

“I don’t believe President Buhari deserves another four year term, because the perversive hunger and poverty in Nigeria is inexplicable,” Iliyasu told reporters minutes after coming down from the mast.

“Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producer in the world, but the masses cannot afford one square meal a day, so this is my reason for being here, for risking my life to climb this mast.

“I do not have any mental disorder as insinuated by people, I am mentally stable.”

THE WHISTLER had earlier reported that operatives of the Presidential Guards Brigade and personnel of the Department of State Security, arrived at the scene in Asokoro, Abuja, to convince Iliyasu to come down.

The Guards Brigade, a special arm of the Nigerian Army responsible for the President’s security, dispersed onlookers who gathered to watch the 26-year-old.