Nationwide Protest: Lawmaker Urges Youth To Embrace Dialogue

The Senator representing Kwara North Senatorial District, Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar, has called on Nigerian youth to embrace dialogue and shelve the planned nationwide protest. According to a press release made available to newsmen in Moro, the chairman senate committee on Industry, Trade and Investment, said that the planned nationwide protest will ground and paralyse commercial activities, which will further cripple our economy.

In his address, he said that the country has not fully recovered from the ruins of COVID-19, which later resulted in global recession. He noted that the present inflation and high skyrocketing prices of commodities, which have caused unbearable hardship for Nigerians, have affected many homes.

“Expressing displeasure with some government policies through protest deepens democracy, but we should not forget that a hijacked and violent protest will further plunge, aggravate and worsen Nigeria’s economy.

“Taming the tide of hunger, inflation, and hardship shouldn’t take a violent form. Recommending representatives through various interest groups to have an interface with the government could be a sound alternative. And our youth should remember that they’re the leaders of tomorrow. Any attempt to engage in wanton and gratuitous vandalisation of government properties through hijacked protest will further cripple the economy and add to the burden of the government at any level.”

The lawmaker admonished.

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Umar, therefore, appealed to Nigerian youth to come to the table and engage the government constructively.

He said “the last few months of President Tinubu’s administration, the federal government has empowered the youth through the 30 percent representation mandate and Nigerian Youth Investment Fund with N25b; includes women in the National Business Skills Development Initiative(NBSDI); launched the Three Million Technical Talent Initiative(3MTT); approved student loan to support 1.2million students, construct hostels for students with a capacity of 1,600 across twenty-four tertiary institutions, and N5.1b was approved for 185 research proposals under TETFUND National Research Fund; increased crude oil production from 1.22m barrels per day to 1.6m barrels per day; the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas(NLNG) production increased from 57% to 70%; paid $1.3b debts to gas firm so as to ensure steady supply of gas to the needed stations; gave out 42, 000 metric tons of assorted grains like sorghum, millet, maize from National Strategic Reserves, and 60, 000 metric tonnes of rice to vulnerable Nigerians; the Central Bank Nigeria donated 2.15m bags of fertilisers worth N100b to farmers; launched the National Agricultural Development Fund to aid Dry Season Initiative, Green Imperative Programme, for all year round farming; rolled out Conditional Cash Transfer of 25k to 15million vulnerable households for three months; provided N50b as Conditional Grants to One Million nano businesses, and N75b fund to support manufacturers; established N50b Pulako Initiative and annually recruiting 30,000 new Police personnel; freed 4,600 hostages, neutralised over 9,300 hostiles, arrested over 7,000 bandits; foreign reserves hits an all time high of $34b.”

He further reeled out some steps taken by the government, including: “capital market jumped to N93.37b from N18.12b; minimum wage increased from 30k to 70k; approved local government autonomy; fuel importation reduced by 51.4%; signed the 2023 electricity bill into law to break the monopoly in the power sector and empower state and private sector to generate, distribute and transmit; capital inflow of Nigeria increased by 66.27%; over 45% increment in federal allocation to states; Nigeria’s economy increased by $36.89b; GDP increased by 3.1%. Nigeria is a net exporter of cement and refined petroleum products to Europe and the West African States today. As a result of President Tinubu’s administrative ingenuity, Nigeria’s economy has increased by $36.89b”.

He said that as a representative of the people, he urged Nigerians to exercise patience as the pains of today will later be gains of tomorrow.