North-East leaders warn against protest

The North-East Leaders of Thought (NELT), has appealed to youths to shelve the planned nationwide protest and give the government a chance.The Chairman of NELT, retired Maj.-Gen. IBM Haruna, made the appeal at a news conference to mark his 84th birthday on Thursday in Abuja.According to Haruna, a lot of sacrifices have been made for the nation to stand .'I grew up joining the military not for the fun of it, but with the determination to ensure that the unity and stability of the country remains indissoluble.'When the civil war broke out, we all had no other options than to make all the sacrifices to keep Nigeria one. By the grace of God, this was done.'We have remained together for the last 63 years as a nation.'Let me use the occasion of the celebration of my birthday to appeal to our youths, who are planning some protests around the country, to give the government a chance to settle down to work,' he said.According to Haruna, the government has just spent one year in office.'Hopefully, when it gets its acts together, it should be able to improve the living conditions of the people.'He said that efforts had been made to send some palliatives to all the states of the federation.The chairman said that there were many other measures which the government had mapped out to address the challenges confronting the nation.' It is my hope that those responsible for carrying out government tasks will take their assignments with all the seriousness they deserve.See also Foundation calls for investigation into alleged N200 daily feeding for inmates'Let me also call on the government of the day to give a human face to all its programmes and activities that are being undertaken.'The basis on which this government was voted into office in 2023 was for the renewed hope agenda of the President.'By implication, it means Nigerians had lost hope and the administration promised to reset the hopeless situation with a renewed hope,'' he saidHaruna said that things got worse with the immediate withdrawal of subsidy, hike in electricity tariff, currency devaluation, and expensive transportation system.He added that the deepening economic crisis was getting out of hand.Haruna reminded the government that the security and welfare of the people was the primary purpose of its existence.Source: News Agency of Nigeria