A Press briefing by the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, Rivers Sate Chapter. The Rivers State ALGON calls FG to checkmate the curious turn of event in Rivers State
The full text of the Press Release:
Good afternoon, Gentlemen of the press. We sincerely appreciate your prompt and positive response to our invitation today.
This press conference is to express our concern about the negative and intentionally instigated turn of events in Rivers State
To state the obvious, as democrats, we believe that it is the fundamental rights of citizens in democratic nations to embark on protest to draw the attention of government to specific socio-economic problems in society.
In view of this, we expect all protests to be peaceful and protesters to be law abiding and not to do anything in the process to incite tension, unrest, violence and cause the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
In Rivers State, we have observed that there is a curious deviation from this constitutional benchmark for protesters and protest.
What we see today is that protesters have resorted to unlawful acts, such as burning of tyres, extortion of motorists, and threatening business owners to shut down their premises. There is clear indications that the organizers are losing control of the protesters, who are resorting to more disruptive and criminal conducts.
For example, the recent attacks on the All Progressives Congress – APC State secretariat in Rivers State and threat to attack the residential home of the Federal Capital Territory Minister proves the correctness of the obvious.
The unnecessary politicization of the protest for political benefit by forces loyal to the Governor of the Rivers State.
Worst still, the protest is becoming subversive as protesters are chanting “Tinubu must go” slogan.
Ordinarily, the Governor being the chief security officer, instead of taking clear and staunch pro-active stance like his counterparts in the country to prevent or control the protest is seen posing indifferently amidst the unlawful, chaotic and implosive strides by protesters.
Surprisingly, the Governor in his address on the first day of the protest justified the protest, even applauding and lending credence as well as moving among them showing assent and affirmation to the unlawful acts of the protesters, only signals a foul play, a twist in the sworn obligation to ensure security and wellbeing of citizens.
As a major beneficiary of the oil subsidy removal, whose allocation from the Federation Account has increased astronomically, we ordinally expect the Governor to tell the protesting youths what he has done or intends to do to reduce the suffering of his people, he only offered the protesters bread and pure water and promised to convey the demands of the protesters to the President as if the on-going protest is only against Mr. President. This is unfortunate. As citizens of Rivers State, we take exception to this approach.
As individuals who led the campaigns for the Governor of Rivers State during the 2023 general elections, we know that the protest is against Mr. President, the Governor and the Local Government Chairmen who receive allocations from FAAC.
On our part, we have worked hard in our respective Local Government Areas to ensure that the Local Government Areas are peaceful.
As chairmen, we embarked on numerous developmental projects in our respective local government areas for the economic empowerment and development of our people.
This explains why the local government areas are largely peaceful in this era of protests. Till date, we are still persuading our people to be supportive of Mr. President, assuring them that the President means well for Nigeria.
We commend Mr. President for his efforts for initiating and implementing various policies to move Nigeria forward, according to Sanusi, the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria “it will be unfair to God and man if we blame Tinubu for Nigerian economic hardship.
According to him, “Nigeria was living on fake lifestyle” with huge debt from foreign and domestic borrowings since 2012. Tinubu’s decision to remove subsidy and unification of the exchange rate was Nigeria’s only surviving strategy, today there is no more borrowing to run government any more.
The president has only governed Nigeria for 14months, we believe more time is needed for his policies to impact on the people. With the removal of import duties on food and pharmaceutical imports, prices of food and medical consumables will soon fall drastically.
We commend the president for initiating an action to ensure local government autonomy in the federation. With this the local government councils will drive development of the grassroot in the nation.
In addition, we thank Mr. President for doing the followings;
Approval and increasing minimum wage from Thirty Thousand Naira (N30,000) to Seventy Thousand Naira (N70,000).
Initiating the student loan scheme. clearing of foreign exchange obligations of about Five Billion Dollars.
This act has reduced Nigeria’s debts service ration from 97% to 68%.
Earmarking of ten (10) million hectares of land for food production.
Proposing to build one hundred thousand (100,000) houses in three (3) years. This will amount to five hundred (500) housing units to be built for low-income earners in each state
Disbursement of N570 million to the states for the empowerment of the people.
The above are highlights of responsive short, middle and long term actions taken by the president who is continuously pleading with the protesters to meet with him to dialogue in order not to prolong the detrimental consequences of the protest on the economy of Nigeria.
We commend the FCT Minister for tirelessly supporting Mr. President in these trying times to ensure the stability of the Federal Capital Territory.
We also commend the Police and other law enforcement agencies in Rivers State for effectively managing the protest so far. And we pray that God in His infinite mercy should protect all residents of the State.
We finally want to use this press conference to call on residents not to use the protest to threaten people or destroy property in the State.
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