Pulse.ng : Dialogue, panacea to take Nigeria to promise land, not violent protest

By Sani Idris

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, (CEO) of QAT Foundation, Hajiya Halimat Adenike has met with protesters in Jos, plateau state in a bid to address the ongoing nationwide protests.

Adenike, commended the youths in Jos, Platue state for a peaceful protest, however noting that dialogue is the panacea to take Nigeria to promise land violent protest.

Hajiya Adenike at exactly 11:05am stormed the scene of protest on Sunday shortly after president Bola Ahmed Tinubu addressed Nigeria in a national broadcast said that the youths have the right to protest but should not be adamant in their quest even as the government is up and doing to address their concerns.

Commending the youths for conducting themselves in a peaceful atmosphere without any form of violent since the protest begun, Adenike noted that Jos has shown a good example to other states that violent cannot give them the desired change that they are agitating for.

The CEO while expressing fear that the peaceful protest might be hijacked by miscreants if it lingers, further urged the youths to go off the street and await president Tinubu's intervention, adding that the APC government has heard their greviances and it's determined to address them without any delay.

Citing some of the interventions of the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu's led administration in one year, Adenike said that the administration of Tinubu has shown its commitment to the youth by setting up the student loan scheme, adding that 45.6billion Naira has already been processed for payment to students and their respective institutions.

The philanthropist equally stated that “more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from the government's nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nano-bussinesses are expected to benefit.

“On the other hand, 75,000 beneficiaries have been processed to receive the Tinubu's N1million Micro and Small Business single-digit interest loans, starting this month. The APC government has also built 10 MSME hubs within the past year, created 240,000 jobs through them and 5 more hubs are in progress which will be ready by October this year.”

Adenike further reiterated that aside the above mentioned interventions and more, the N70,000 minimum wage signed into law last week by president Tinubu will ease the life of Nigerian workers thereby improving their livelihoods.

She urged the protesting youths to give the government more time, while disclosing that dialogue remains panacea to take Nigeria to it's promise land and not violent protests.

Speaking on behalf of the teaming protesters, Activist Sunday Lawrence calmed down the protesters and appreciated Hajiya Halimat for her concern on national issues.

Lawrence said that he has heard about Hajiya Adenike's intervention in Kogi, Kaduna, Abuja and other states using her personal resources. He lamented that Nigerians are angry because of the hardship posed on the country by the policies and reforms put in place by the Tinubu's led administration, meanwhile he promised that he will try his possible best to mobilize other youths to end the protest in plateau as soon as possible.

He said, "we are delighted to see you. Your coming simply means that you have Nigeria at heart as a patriot.

"This is the kind of leaders we need in the hem of affairs and not people who does not care about the welfare of the citizenry. Your humanity is top notch because as a woman I expected you to be scared of coming to our midst incase of any attack, but you decided to risk your life without considering any of those consequences. Comrades, I think this woman deserve three ”gbosa”. The teaming youths chanted gbosa while waving the leaves in their hands.

Adenike while leaving the scene of protest also bought water for the protesters and promised to have a town hall meeting with them as soon as the protest come to an end, reiterating that Nigeria lost over N400 billion on daily basis to the protest.