Tinubu Urges Youths To Shelve Planned Protests, Says Concerns Being Addressed

Reported by Ayooluwa Afolabi

In a move intended to abort the planned nationwide protests by Nigerian youths set to begin August 1, President Bola Tinubu, yesterday, appealed to organizers to shelve their plans, assuring them that he had listened to their concerns and already working to address them.

The protest, billed to be held across the country from August 1 to 10, is the way Nigerian youths have elected to register the impact of food scarcity and the inability to afford common needs by the citizenry.

The president, who urged the youths to exercise patience, however, promised to run all-inclusive government, and also pay stipends to unemployed graduates.

According to THISDAY, briefing newsmen after a routine meeting with the President at the State House, Abuja, Information and National Orientation Minister, Mohammed Idris, said, “Mr President has asked me to again inform Nigerians that he listens to them, especially the young people that are trying to protest.

“Mr President listens to them, he takes what they say seriously and he is working assiduously to ensure that this country is good, not just for today but also for the future.

“On the issue of the planned protest, Mr President does not see any need for that. He has asked them to shelve the plan and asked them to await the government’s response to all their pleas. He has listened to them like I said.”

The Minister further disclosed that intervention measures had been taken by the Tinubu administration, including the new minimum wage of N70,000 already passed by the National Assembly, trucks of rice already dispatched to all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory as well as the Student Loans Fund launched recently by the President.

“A lot is happening. Only today, the National Assembly has expeditiously passed the bill on the National minimum wage. You can see how the President is working. It was transmitted only yesterday, today it has been passed.

“A lot of other interventions that the President has also put in place are also going to be looked at expeditiously in the interest of Nigerians. So, there is no need for a strike.

“The young people out there should listen to the president and allow him more time to see to the realization of all the goodies he has for them,” he said.

Highlighting other policies to cushion the effect of the hardship, he said, “For example, you saw that the federal government approved grains and rice for state governments. It was delivered to them expeditiously.

“Also, the federal government, like I said that time, it is just the necessary first step. The government is going to continue in that direction, supporting them and assuring that whatever intervention the federal government has put in place goes to those that should benefit. It is very important that is being put out.

“The federal government is looking at strategies that every intervention would go directly to those who benefit from those interventions not middlemen intervening along the way.

“You heard about the student loans board launched by Mr President? Mr President is very passionate about the fact that everyone will have the opportunity to go to school.

“It is no longer a time for all of us to stay back and see our able-bodied young men and women that have passed the examinations to go to tertiary institutions that have not been able to do that because their parents are not able to pay for their fees.

“This is now a thing of the past. Government is very very desirous to ensure that happens. You know the provision that was made to the NELFUND? Already, we have in excess what is required today and the more that people are requiring, the more the president will also give.”

Idris also disclosed that government would soon come up with a scheme that will accommodate all unemployed graduates nationwide, stressing that Tinubu was committed to running an all-inclusive government.

According to him, “There is also the intervention the President is making for young men and women, who have finished school and who are yet to get employed post-NYSC.

“For example, there is a scheme the government is perfecting now and that will be pushed very fast so that all those young men and women who have finished school, graduates of universities and polytechnics that are not able to get jobs, will continue to be supported by the government until such a time that those jobs are offered to them.

“The whole idea is that no one is left behind, everybody will be in. It is an all-inclusive government and the president is determined to ensure that no one is left behind in this attempt to march Nigeria towards progress.”