Former presidential candidate Prof Kingsley Moghalu has lamented the  little regard for Nigerians by the state.

Moghalu, who said this while reflecting on the handling of the current hardship protest by security agencies, said operatives have shown wanton disregard for the lives of the protesters.

He deplored the mindset of the security operatives as being programmed to ensure regime protection rather than protection of lives and properties.

The raging protest to end bad governance in the country has entered Day 6, has resulted in deaths, arrests, destruction and lootings of properties, despite appeals by President Bola Tinubu and other eminent Nigerians for the protesters to stop the demonstrations across the country.

Reacting on his X handle, the former presidential hopeful said, “@PoliceNG & other security agencies in Nigeria have an unfortunate mindset. Their number one priority is regime protection, not the protection of Nigerian lives and property. That is why they have wanton disregard for the lives of protesters, & is why kidnapping, terrorism reign.

“If they were to confront criminality with the ferocity and determination they exhibit toward citizens who are protesting hunger, our security situation would be vastly different and improved. The Nigerian state has little regard for its citizens, political rhetorics aside,” he said.