MY MESSAGE TO THE NIGERIAN LEADERS ABOUT NIGERIAN YOUTHS
Fellow country men and women, it saddens my heart to have to communicate with you through this medium, on this unpleasant subject matter, which has affected us all in Nigeria, especially the youths of this great nation.
Nigerian youths in whatever way you might wish to describe them, are not lazy or weak people in any capacity or position you may find them, rather, they are citizens who are embedded with exceptional particularities, both in character and learning, which has enable them to adapt to any atmospheric condition or environment they find themselves and they do excel in their chosen field of endeavours globally.
The youths of this country are even ready to engage themselves meaningfully, so far it is a way forward. However, it is saddening to note that in our country, Nigeria our youths cannot do better or excel optimally in their field of specialties the way they do outside the shores of Nigeria. Now, the big question that has been begging for an answer is, what do they do differently out there, that our leaders who have been visiting those developed countries at will, cannot domesticate same here in Nigeria, in order to make our economy favourable and reliable to enable our young men and women excel the way they do outside Nigeria?
The #ENDSARS movement was created or carried out as a result of inability of the federal government of Nigeria to utilize and channel the enormous economic resources God has endowed this country with appropriately. Therefore, the Nigeria police brutality which triggered the #ENDSARS protests, was just a medium to bring to the fore the pains and sufferings Nigerians go through in the hands of our leaders before the eyes of global community.
I cannot help wondering why we have all it takes to be a self-sufficient country, but still, we are going beggarly depending on developed countries for survival. I cannot help wondering why the federal government of Nigeria cannot cater adequately for our healthcare workers, thereby allowing them to be embarking on strike months after months, without minding the fact they save lives. I cannot help wondering why the federal government of Nigeria still allow our institutions of learning to see strike as the best option to adopt before their salaries or what due them could be given to them, or did they forget in a hurry that they all passed through the hands of teachers to become what they are today? IT IS SAD!
The #ENDSARS protests has come as a warning signal that things are not being properly managed and coordinated in Nigeria by our leaders at all levels, and that Nigerians in general are not satisfied with the very best our leaders claimed to have offered us by both past and current leaders.
The #ENDSARS movement is a child of necessity born out of a desire to stop police brutality against Nigeria youths across the country. It was inevitable at the time, owing to myriads of problems confronting the country without any hope in sight.
The #ENDSARS protesters are not hoodlums as was wrongly reported in some quarters across the country. If you push even a pastor or an Imam to a wall, where he has no escape route, he will certainly turn back and face you eyeball to eyeball, whether with “Holy Ghost Fire or Islamic fire”. How can you sit on the rights of the people for years, and when they decide to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH, you label them hoodlums? ERROR O O O!
If I may ask, the PALLIATIVES that our able body and patriotic Nigerian youths broke into those warehouses to pack, so that they will not remain there and expire were for which people? Despite the excruciating pain people went through as a result of the protracted lockdown and shutdown of people’s businesses, you still decided to go ahead to hold back the money high spirited individuals and corporate organizations donated in billions and the gift items (palliatives), which it has pleased the Lord to make you people stored them in, where it could be easily accessed, but not in Aso Villa or any government house, and the rightful owners went to pack them, and you labelled them hoodlums! Abba, think of it! Or do you call the woman that went there with her baby well tied at her back, who picked some packs of indomie and passed over to her baby at her back hoodlum? Or the baby holding a pack of indomie with a smile for a joy that there will be a plate of indomie to eat hoodlum?
Through this communique therefore, and on behalf of the Nigerian youths, the federal government of Nigeria is hereby summoned to pay Nigerian youths a compensation of five hundred million naira (N500,000.000.00) each to the 36 States of Nigeria and the federal capital territory (FCT) Abuja , on or before the 2021 democracy day celebration for tarnishing their image by calling them hoodlums!
O yes! You may say that the youths broke into private businesses to destroy and cart away goods belonging to private business owners. Yes, they did that just to show the levels of their annoyances against the State, but not that they were hoodlums. Not at all! Even you, when you are highly angry and fight breaks out, you may discover that even the peace maker (the third party), who may wish to come to separate you people, sometimes end up receiving some blows from you, just to show how much angry you are!. IT IS ON THIS NOTE, I, THEREFORE ON BEHALF OF THE NIGERIAN YOUTHS, TENDER A NATIONAL APOLOGY TO ALL OUR DEAR BUSINESS MEN AND WOMEN, WHOSE SHOPS AND BUSINESS CENTERS WERE AFFECTED DURING THE 2020 #ENDSARS PROTESTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. WE ARE SO SORRY ABOUT THAT INCIDENCE.
This communique has been ready since last October, but I could not present it to you, because we were still in the mourning period over the untimely demise of some of our young STARS, “The Nigerian Youths”, especially those that were killed at the Lekki Toll Plaza, in Lagos, on Tuesday, October 20th, 2020. May their gentle souls continue to rest in peace. Amen.
As a matter of urgency, and with due respect to the constituted authority, I hereby ask the federal government of Nigeria to accept this communique as a conciliatory approach to them, hence the urgent need for our current leaders to implement the 16 demands of the #ENDSARS movement and the 2014 National confab recommendations, so that our leaders might not end up busy preparing Nigeria for the world that no longer exists. Franklin D. Roosevelf once said, if we cannot prepare the future for our children, we can at least prepare our children for the future.
If we must avoid a future that would not be questionable, let our present leaders begin to act in an unquestionable manners, both in character, spending of public funds, equitable project execution/ federal appointment, justice and fair-hearing in our courts.
This is the communique issued by the organizing committee, Conciliatory Approach Forum on 2020 #ENDSARS protests.
May peace of God prevail on Nigeria, and may God direct our noble Leaders right. Amen.
May we all have a safe and productive outcome of this month of February. Amen.
Happy new month to you and do have a fruitful one ahead!
Thank you.
Ubong-Abasi Dan,
Convener, Conciliatory Approach Forum of Nigeria
--- The Voice Everyone Needs TO Hear!
