Non-Violent Citizens Have Every Right To Peacefully Gather – Lolo

Nollywood actress, Lolo has has come out to react to the dispersal of protesters in Abuja with tear gas canisters during the demonstration led by the Take-It-Back Movement and other civil society organizations.

She recently had her say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

According to her, she can only question the rationale behind the security forces’ decision to fire tear gas on demonstrators who were reportedly unarmed and non-violent, except they are insinuating that citizens don’t have the right to peacefully gather.

Lolo added that even their chants are just words, and those words will not turn into bullets all of a sudden.

Her words, “Citizens have a right to peacefully gather, it’s their right in the constitution. But when they now gather and there is no form of violence, it’s not like they’re carrying guns or anything, no form of violence or agitation.

Even if they were chanting, it’s just words. Not like their words turn into bullets but for you to fire tear gas in the midst of peaceful protesters, I’m just wondering if there was anything they did to make them think the protesters would cause a breakdown of law and order. If nothing like that has happened, is the show of force not too aggressive?”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.