August 1 Protest: Lagos Arewa Community suggest critical stakeholders dialogue with Tinubu

The Lagos State Arewa Community in All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged northern leaders and other prominent elder statesmen in Nigeria, to approach President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in order to prioritise good representation and adequately scale-up food production with a bid to forestall the purported protest and its likely negative aftermath.

Chairman Arewa Community APC Lagos Alhaji Sa’adu Yusuf Dandare Gulma made this assertion while addressing newsmen on Monday, with a clear directive for the teeming Arewa youths and members not to be part of any protest come August 1, 2024.

“The attention of Arewa community in Lagos state has been drawn to the call for a proposed strike action come August 1,2024 in Lagos and some other states across Nigeria, we are hereby calling on our very hardworking youths and members to distance themselves from the protest, because it will further impoverish and worsen our predicament.

“The last time protest was held in Lagos and Nigeria most of our public infrastructures: buses, poor people’s shops and even families suffered great losses, so we are saying No protest and we will not be an instrument for protest.”

Sa’adu cited instances of economic woes such protest held in time past brought on Lagos and many other parts of the country, he counselled that instead of the proposed protest the voice of reasoning especially that of former leader’s need be loudly echoed and harkened to on the way forward to salvage the situation.

“We know that the economy melt down is severe but we will need to address this through other better avenues than protest, we all know how the #Endsars protest went, people died, properties were vandalized, buses were burnt beyond recognition.

“So, we are calling on our Arewa Youths and members to stay away from any form of protest as our leaders are working hard to put things in order.

The helmsman of Lagos Arewa-Sa’adu in appreciation of the dire situation of the economy urged the planners of the said protest to consider the option of dialogue to proffer a way out of the doldrums, as experienced leaders who can speak truth to power are readily available to safe the day.

“We are appealing that our leaders in the north among the government cadre need to approach President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his team, so that a good representation will be prioritised, also production of food will be priority, because Nigerians are hungry and a hungry man is an angry man.”

Adding that Arewa community in Lagos are law abiding people, “we won’t want to be recognized with any protest that will ruin that strong relationship built long ago by our forefathers and leaders, so, WE ARE SAYING NO TO PROTEST, OUR YOUTHS ARE PROGRESSIVES NOT PROTESTERS.”