As youths across the country prepare to hold a nationwide protest starting from Thursday, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao (Allow Alao), has urged them to shelve the idea and tow the path of dialogue with the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Alao in a statement by his Media Office, who acknowledged that Nigerians are going through difficult times, however cautioned that embarking on protest to register grievances could be counter-productive as it could be hijacked by unscrupulous elements.
While going down memory lane, he disclosed that as a students union activist during his days at the University of Lagos, he would never subscribe to any form of protest given his experience during the administration of President Ibrahim Babangida, noting that the protest he participated in went awry.
According to him, “In 1989, as a member of the Socialist Youth group and an executive member of the University of Lagos Students Unions, I was one of the students that planned the protest in El kanemi Hall during the popular “IBB MUST GO” era. It was an issue of inflation and hunger that drove the protest. It started very well on that day but by 3 pm miscreants and hooligans had took over and it was disaster with buildings and shops burnt, lives lost and unfortunately it spread to other states as students of other schools also took to the street. It was a week of rage, violence and destruction. Indeed, I will never forget that week.”
He added that the experience of Nigerians during the EndSARS protest could not be forgotten in a hurry, stating that the protest started peacefully but later turned to bloody with attendant consequences of infrastructure burnt and people losing their means of livelihood.
On high cost of foodstuff which is part of what is fueling the protest, the Asiwaju of Irokoland put the blame on the greed in the society, stating that it is unexplainable to have a trader purchased food items in the Northern part of the country at a lower price and moved to Ibadan or Lagos to sell at exorbitant price all because of transport cost.
“And the traders are talking about transport cost. What transport cost? How can a basket of tomato that cost N5,000 in Jos and Minna cost N40, 000 in Ibadan and Lagos?”, he lamented.
Alao who expressed confidence in the ability of President Tinubu to make life better for the masses in the country, however urged the President to set up price control board to monitor prices of food stuff across the country, adding that government can also assist food marketers to convey their purchases through train from the North to the Southwest and other areas of the Southern part of the country.
He nevertheless insisted that a hungry man is an angry man, enjoining the Federal Government to stop given palliatives but rather intervene in the prices of foods stuffs, stating that palliatives only reach few people and not the entire populace.
“I want to appeal to our youths not to participate in the planned protest because it can be hijacked by hoodlums who can turn it to bloody one by taking the advantage to destroy public assets and the consequences of this will add salt to injury. I am speaking from experience as a students union activist”, Alao stated.