A northern group, the Arewa Youth Ambassadors, on Monday said there is no going back on the protest against economic hardship tagged #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria slated for August 1 across the country.
The group said the current economic crisis and the difficulties facing Nigerians were as a result of harsh and anti-people policies of the President Bola Tinubu-led government just as it called on the President to return fuel subsidy.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on behalf of the group, Comrade Yahaya Abdullahi said failure to develop a clear economic strategy in a nation was a threat to justice. He said there is no iota of transparency and accountability in President Tinubu’s government but only hardship and pains.
He noted that no amount of blackmail and intimidation by the government, security agencies and their agents would stop them from exercising their constitutional rights and speaking out their minds. Yahaya called on Nigerians not to stand by but to come out en masse and join the protest until the government accedes to their demands and reverses the pump price to the old price.
The statement read “Justice is the basis for social system. If a nation is beset by the unreasonable actions that deter citizens from the essentials for a good life and adequate healthcare, it will teeter on the brink of disharmony and frustration.
In order to promote peace, a government should be honest and just. Because there is no path to a sustainable future but peace: the link to reason and agreement, the stimulant for development and the base of remaining alive.
Peace should be taken in tow by justice to achieve the levels of national cooperation, inclusiveness and trust needed for resilience. Otherwise, things will for sure fall apart, with so many avoidable problems to come after in time, here and there. The current severe economic crisis and the difficulties we are going through in this Country are caused by the harsh and inhuman policies imposed upon us by the president Tinubu-led government.
Transparency and consensus are nowhere to be found in this regime of a government that is obviously serious on reducing every individual outside of the powers that are to indigence and beggary. In this respect, the abrupt removal of fuel subsidy has thrown the masses into a state of misfortune and affliction. The unequal distribution of foodstuffs and money to the friends and family of those at the corridor of power is unacceptable and cannot solve our problems; return fuel subsidy now.
Nigerians have been subjected to untold suffering through reckless public utterances and insupportable economic policies.
This leaves them with no option than to make clear their frustration and anger through acceptable means. Protest is our right, we must protest against the ongoing bad governance. We can’t continue living as sl3ves in our own country, we must speak and fight for ourselves, nobody else can do it for us.
The youth must all come out to the street on the 1st of August and once the government fail to reverse these policies that subjected us into abject poverty and hunger, the protest will continue till 10th August, 2024 or even beyond. We must act to bring change in our father land, the government has failed and the youth must act, People are dying in hunger and nobody cares. No nation can survive on hunger, even water, the second life, is denied.
Therefore, our planned protest is necessary and inevitable, no backing out of it. The only escape will be as and when government changes to the contrary for Nigerians to have a sense of relief.”
