The FCT Youth Movement, comprised of over 20 groups of indigenous and non-indigenous citizens residing in the FCT, have expressed their decision not to participate in the planned national protests slated for August 1st.
In a statement by Sa’ad Mohammed Aboki, the youths said the FCT Youth Movement, along with other civil society groups, also wants to call on the people of Abuja not to join the protest. They said the planned nationwide protests have a violent undertone.
The statement reads, “After several meetings and engagement between our group and all the security agencies in the FCT, we have the privilege of information that foreign sponsors are determined to bring the country to disarray. We also have seen some political undertone behind this call for mass action.
“We cannot shy away from the fact that Nigeria is passing through a very difficult time in our history. The increase in fuel prices has led to an unbearable hardship; the floating of the naira and some other policies from the Tinubu-led administration have also led the nation into an unbelievable economic crisis where the inflation rate has skyrocketed, there is an issue of hike in electricity tariffs and so on, which are biting hard on the general masses.
, however, we can device other means to channel our grievances rather than physical protest on the street.
“It is in the light of the above that we are calling on the federal government, ably led by the President and the Commander in Chief of the Arm Forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to heed to the cry of the ordinary citizens of Nigeria by immediately addressing the following; Completely eradicate the insecurity in Northern Nigeria and every other part of the country affected; tackle the rise in inflation rate in the country which is at 34.2 percent today; reverse the already hiked electricity tariff; return subsidy back on petrol while there is an accelerated effort to make our refineries work again; provide food security for the masses while securing our farmlands for the farmers to return to farming; and reduce the cost of governance generally through cutting down the allowances of public office holders beginning with himself.”