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.
He said this in a press release made available to newsmen in Moro, Kara State.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator Umar, said that the planned nationwide protest will ground and paralyse commercial activities which will further cripple our economy.
In his release, he said that the country has not fully recovered from the ruins of COVID-19, which later resulted in global recession, noting that the present inflation and high skyrocketing prices of commodities which has caused unbearable hardship on Nigerians has affected many homes.
He said, “It is true that expressing displeasure with some policies of the government 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, he averred that our youth should remember that they’re the leaders of tomorrow, and any attempt to engage in wanton and gratuitous vandalization of government properties through hijacked protest will further cripple the economy and add to the burden of the government at any level.”
Umar therefore appealed to Nigerian youth to come to the table and engage the government constructively.
He said, “In 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 N25 billion; includes women in the National Business Skills Development Initiative, NBSDI; launched the Three Million Technical Talent Initiative, 3MTT; approved student loan to support 1.2 million students, construct hostels for students with a capacity of 1,600 across twenty-four tertiary institutions, and N5.1 billion was approved for 185 research proposals under TETFUND National Research Fund; increased crude oil production from 1.22 million barrels per day to 1.6 million barrels per day; the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, production increased from 57 per cent to 70 per cent; paid $1.3 billion 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, and maize from National Strategic Reserves, and 60,000 metric tonnes of rice to vulnerable Nigerians; the Central Bank Nigeria donated 2.15 million bags of fertilisers worth N100 billion 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 N25,000 to 15million vulnerable households for three months; provided N50 billion as Conditional Grants to one million nano businesses, and N75 billion fund to support manufacturers; established N50 billion 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 government to include “capital market jumped to N93.37 billion from N18.12 billion; minimum wage increased from N30,000 to N70,000; approved local government autonomy; fuel importation reduced by 51.4 per cent; signed the 2023 electricity bill into law so as 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 per cent; over 45 per cent increment in federal allocation to states; Nigeria’s economy increased by $36.89 billion; GDP increased by 3.1 per cent. Today, Nigeria is a net exporter of cement to Europe and refined petroleum products to Europe and West African States. As a result of President Tinubu’s administrative ingenuity, Nigeria’s economy has increased by $36.89 billion.”.
He said as a representative of the people, he urged Nigerians to exercise patience as the pains of today will later be gains of tomorrow.
