The minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike has said the planned nationwide protest is politically inspired.
He spoke with newsmen on Tuesday whilst inspecting the Karshi to Apo Road construction project.
The youth-led protest against economic hardship and towering inflation has been scheduled to begin on August 1.
The FCT minister said the government is working assiduously to fix some of the country’s challenges.
“Let’s tell ourselves the simple truth. If we are playing politics let’s say we are playing politics; if we want to be sincere to ourselves, let’s be sincere to ourselves and help our country,” NAN quoted Wike as saying.
“The country is rotten. You know that the country is rotten, and a government has just come to see what it can do to at least, move it from where we are to a certain level, and you say that miracle must be performed within one year.
“You are here now, we are talking about a project that was awarded 13 good years ago, what has happened? Nothing.
“Now a government has come to see how it can fix all these things and we are in too much of a hurry demanding that it must be done now.
“It is not possible. The protest is a political protest.”
Wike recognized that the people are unhappy because of hunger and unemployment.
“So, let’s not listen to political protesters and political jobbers who just want to be popular. You know there are some people who believe that if they don’t criticise, they will not be popular,” he said.
“We are going to elections very soon; these are political gimmicks.
“Just know that the government is a serious government and working to solve the problem.
“We believe that things will turn around, but we should be patient with the government.”