Coalition of youth and student groups from Nasararawa State have backed out from the planned nationwide protest scheduled to begin from 1st August.
The leaders of the various groups stated their position on Friday in Lafia immediately after a one-day youth and student stakeholder engagement.
Ja’afaru Loko, Nasararawa State Chairman of the National Youths Council of Nigeria, an umbrella body of the youth, said that they are not in support of protest under whatever guise at this time.
He explained that the state was enjoying a peaceful atmosphere at the moment because of the huge investments the state government had made in the youths and other sectors of the economy.
He explained that there were challenges in every nation and Nigeria was not an exception, but, they believed that as stakeholders, they should engage the government in dialogue towards addressing the problem instead of protesting.
“Protest, demonstration, and upraising had never proffer solutions to situations like this in the past and only dialogue can help in tackling the current challenges,” he added.
He further said that the state government had appointed many youths as heads of so many agencies in the state in addition to improving the infrastructure and general welfare of the citizenry.
He therefore appealed to the youth in the state not to allow anybody to use them to destabilise the government from achieving its goals of improving the economy and security situation in the country.
Also, Mr. Haruna Ibrahim, Chairman of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) in the state, said they are not part of the planned protest that would lead to disruption of their academic calendar as well as the government asserts that it was done in 2020.
He explained that the Nasararawa State Government had given partitive and stipends to students at the tertiary institutions in addition to regular bursary allowances to cushion the effect of the economic challenges.
He therefore said that the student body would organise town hall meetings at various composes in the state to enlighten their members on why they prefer dialogue as the way to go and not protest.
In a remark, Shauibu Sani, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Gov. Abdullahi Sule on Youth and Students Affairs, expressed gratitude to the group for choosing the part of the dialogue to engage the government.
The SSA said that his principal was one of the youth-friendly governors in the entire country and that was evidenced in the number of youths heading strong agencies and serving in different positions in his cabinet.
He, therefore, promised that the government would look into all the issues raised by the group as the factor responsible for the current challenges facing the country with a view to addressing them.
The group comprised of National Youths Council of Nigeria, the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), the Nasararawa State Students’ Association (NASSA), the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (YOWICAN), the Youth Wing of Jama’atu Nasil Islam (NJI).
Others are; Presidents of the Students Union Government (SUG) from all the tertiary institutions in the state, Nasararawa State Students Parliament, Coalition of Northern Christians among others. (NAN).