The Chairman of Gamji Group of Companies, who was the pioneer Board of Trustees and former Director APC-PCC, Dr Sanusi Gamji, has appealed to the youths to jettison the planned nationwide protests scheduled for August 1 in the interest of the already traumatised suffering masses
In a statement by his media aide, he maintained that Nigerians are already going through a lot of excruciating hardship and cannot afford any protests that will inflict more pains on them as was experienced in the End SARS protests that yielded no meaningful results.
The statesman recalled the experiences of Sudan, a country that has been so ravaged by war, started as a civil unrest and culminated into war at the end.
He advised them to give the government the benefit of the doubt and allow them to come out with the promises they made to people in line with the pleas of other notable Nigerians who have also appealed to them to suspend the planned protests.
He warned the protests might be hijacked by miscreants, bandits and kidnappers, thereby thwarting the original intention of the protest.
He drew a comparison of Nigeria’s situation to a metal in a molten state, which is in the process of being reshaped, like a popular proverb says: “No gains without pains”
Gamji, who was Kogi ICC Coordinator said: “While I appreciate the concerns of the youths and other Nigerians about the sufferings of the people, I advise them to give the government the benefit of the doubt to await the various policies and programmes they have in stock for the people to cushion the effects of the present situations.”
He added: “The President has done so much. Let us look at the Presidential vision of Targeted Economic Relief which led to the enactment of the Student Loans Access to Higher Education in which the President declared that no Nigerian student, regardless of his background, will be excluded from obtaining quality education.
“We should also look at the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative which will offer more affordable alternatives to petrol and diesel for transporters and commuters to ease the burden of the increase in petrol cost after the removal of subsidies.”
According to him, Nigerians need to appreciate the recent bold steps by President Tinubu to remove the debilitating monster from the third tier of government in order to position them to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people at the grassroots by ensuring autonomy for the local government councils.
He pleaded further with the promoters of the protests to note that the common people are still going to suffer the consequences of the protests, because their businesses will be disrupted. As we all know that people are already finding it difficult to feed even with their businesses, so shutting them out of businesses during the protests will be too hard for them to bear.
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He called Federal government, in collaboration with the National Assembly, to urgently put more measures in place to cushion the effects of the present harsh economic realities, and to further do more in purging the corrupt officials around him.
“I urge the federal government to also stand by their promises by working in concert with the National Assembly to put more measures in place, to alleviate the sufferings of the masses.
“Furthermore, I also urge the President to purge his administration of corrupt officials around him, while encouraging those charged with the responsibilities of implementing government policies and programmes to do their best for the interest of the country which they were called to serve,” he stressed.