The Confederation of All Progressives Congress (APC) Support Groups has appealed to the youths of the planned protest to avoid street procession that is capable of destabilising the polity and enhancing chaos in the country.
By Priscilla Osaje
The Confederation of All Progressives Congress (APC) Support Groups has appealed to the youths of the planned protest to avoid street procession that is capable of destabilising the polity and enhancing chaos in the country.
Its Director-General, Prof. Kailani Muhammad, who made the appeal on Wednesday at a news conference in Abuja, described the planned protest as their constitutional right but they should hold it peacefully in a confined places.
The group’s D-G said, “There is no doubt that there is hunger in the land. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is aware of these challenges. And because he is a listening father to all, he has started revisiting some of the policies and taking certain actions to reverse the trend.
“He has speedily dispatched 20 trailers of 25 kg rice to each of the 36 states of the federation, including Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.”
He urged Nigerian youths to eschew bitterness and embrace dialogue with the government on all the grey areas of concern.
According to him, our youth must not allow some disgruntled elements in our midst to deceive them into taking actions that are detrimental to the progress of Nigeria.
“Our youth should not allow themselves to be misguided by unscrupulous die- hards, to inflict violence and destroy properties for the sake of the whims of a few self-centered individuals.
“Instead, we implore the youth stratum to positively engage the President Bola Tinubu government, to address some of these issues amicably, so that together, we stand to gain what Mr President has in store for us in the long run.”
The D-G said that the proposed nationwide protest by the youth, slated to commence from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10, 2024 was still at the conflict resolution level.
“Luckily for the nation, the idea is manageable for now, because, it is still at the conflict resolution level. We cannot afford to let it snowball into a crises level.
“There is a broad base between Conflict Resolution and Crises Management because, Crises Management is highly capital intensive.
“We have seen and witnessed the Tiv massacre and the Wild-Wild West of the 1960s. We have seen and witnessed the Nigerian Civil War from 1967 to 1971.
Luckily, the Nigerian nation survived all these challenges, but is still licking wounds from those scenarios.”
According to him, some of the youth planning the protest might not have these experiences. It therefore rests on our shoulders, to caution against deliberate actions with deadly potentials to destabilise the polity and enhance chaos. (NAN)
