The Arewa Youth Ambassadors, a prominent northern group, have declared their unwavering resolve to proceed with a planned protest against bad governance in Nigeria, sending a clear message to President Bola Tinubu.
The protest is scheduled to commence on August 1 and aims to express the group’s dissatisfaction with the President’s “anti-people policies.”
In a statement released on Saturday, the National Coordinator, Yahaya M. Abdullahi, debunked rumors that the mass action had been canceled, calling such information false and misleading. He urged Nigerians to disregard these claims and emphasized that the protest would go ahead as planned.
“The narrative making the rounds that the Arewa Youth Ambassadors had shelved its planned protest aimed at expressing its dissatisfaction with President Tinubu’s anti-people policies is at best false and at worst misleading,” the statement read.
Abdullahi reiterated the group’s commitment to the protest, highlighting the various issues driving their action. “Let’s be categorical, there is no going back on our words, as the protest is scheduled for 1st August, 2024.
Everywhere in the world, people make government, not the other way round. But why should the government brought about by the people in Nigeria be only for those in the corridors of its power?
“If the President Tinubu-led government is for Nigerians as a whole, why on earth the false pretenses? It’s so sad and pathetic that sufferings have become unspeakable and pervasive, while the power that is keeps on looking the other way,” he added.
The Arewa Youth Ambassadors stressed the urgency of the protest, citing spiraling insecurity, incessant food and fuel crises, unemployment, and the high cost of living affecting their region and the country in general. The statement called for immediate policy reversals to address these pressing issues.
“Arewa Youth Ambassadors state beyond any doubt that the protest will happen on the slated date unless the government reverses its policies that have given rise to gruesome hunger and multidimensional poverty in the land,” Abdullahi asserted.
He warned of the potential for widespread unrest if the government continues its current course. “Is Nigeria not even on the brink of revolution? Perhaps if anything has failed to strike a chord for its outbreak, President Tinubu’s starvation scheme surely will. Because Nigerians would rather be killed on the streets by the security forces being paid through their taxes than be laid to death by hunger in their homes, and maybe on or in their beds. And, you know, hunger knows no bounds.”
Abdullahi concluded by emphasizing the peaceful nature of their planned protest and the necessity of voicing their opposition to the government’s actions. “Therefore, as a group of peaceful citizens, we are left with no option than to protest the anti-masses tendencies that President Tinubu-led government continues to introduce on daily basis.”
