IPA APPEALS FOR PROTESTS RENEGE

IPA APPEALS FOR PROTESTS RENEGE 

We, the entire publishers under the canopy of Independent Publishers Association, IPA, appeal to the organisers and proponents of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria to renege from their proposed nationwide protests scheduled for 1st - 10th August, 2024 in view of the catastrophic impact they could have on the nation as was the case with the #EndSARSProtest where so many lives were lost, public and private properties destroyed and skyrocketed insecurity of different scopes and magnitudes. 

There is no doubt that the country is in a serious mess with unbearable hardship on the greatest population particularly the masses caused by the government's haphazard economic policies of subsidy removal on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, and power.

It's a fact that the freedom of assembling and protest are constitutional rights of every Nigeria citizen, however in the execution of our franchise, situational and beneficial variables should be taken into cognizance to avoid escalating the problems instead of de-escalation. 

The general insecurity, poverty, anger, hunger, secession agitations and high crime rate in the country, can truncate the true essence of the protests by leveraging opportunity to men of the underworld (bandits, kidnappers, vandals and terrorists) to hijack and unleash mayhem to the detriment of the country. 

Sudan, Kenyan, Myanmar and Syria are examples of countries whose citizens started protests for long and ravaged them without abating worse than the situation they targeted changing.

Since the essence of the protests is to draw the attention of the government to the plight of the citizens, the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said he has heard the cry of the youth and the masses and will surely act. Based on this premise, we indulge your consideration for dialogue with the government and sparing additional space for promise fulfillment by the president. 

We also call on the President to start implementing some of the given reformation demands of the would-be protesters to prove his commitment to the attainment of their grievances. This way he can prove himself as a  pragmatic leader whose agenda is to better the welfare of his subjects. 

We also call on Plateau State Governor Barrister Caleb Mutfwang, not to rest on the oars of his appointees sycophancy that all is well with the youth and that the entire land is green, whereas many places are brown and desertified. 

So many Small Medium Scale Enterprises, intra-investors and farmers are direly begging for boosting in the state. 

If the youth are seriously engaged with productive ventures and massive production of goods are service are encouraged by the government, the scourge of hardship will drastically abate and the country will prosper. 

Long live IPA!

Long live Plateau State!!

Long live Nigeria!!!

Signed:

Shabul Mazadu 

IPA Chairman