The House of Representatives Committee’s Chairman on Delegated Legislation Mr Femi Bamisile, on Tuesday, revealed that the diversion of the Federal Government palliatives by state governments could be one of the main reasons behind the youth’s anger and the proposed nationwide planned protests.
He advised those planning to protest over harrowing hardship being experienced in the country to engage in dialogue with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government.
In a statement made available to media in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, Bamisile made these remarks and suggested that those behind the planned #endbadgovernance# demonstration consider engaging in peaceful negotiations.
Bamisile, who is representing Ekiti South Federal Constituency II, said democracy is about dialogue, however, warned that protests intended to be peaceful may be hijacked by evil doers as witnessed during the coordinated protests to advocate for the abolition of Police’s Special Anti Robbery Squad(SARS) codenamed ‘#endsars’, under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
The former Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly emphasised that it would be more gratifying and beneficial for Nigerians, no matter how angry, to engage in discussion during this hard time rather than resorting to demonstration, which he described as confrontational and fruitless.
Bamisile went on to explain that the current suffering in the form of high gasoline pump prices and ballooning food costs necessitated comprehensive efforts at both national and subnational levels for Nigerians to heave a sigh of relief, citing these as the source of the disquiet and fury in town.
“All Nigerians have the inalienable right to protest for any demand, as long as it is peaceful and without violence. But how certain are the proponents that these will be secured, given what happened during the Endsars demonstration, which was hijacked by evildoers.
“According to estimates, Lagos State lost over a trillion Naira in property due to endsars protests sparked by the burning of some of our national landmarks. The organisers may have good intentions for the country, but they must consider our country’s political, ethnic, and religious intricacies.
“The country belongs to us all, nothing wrong in a coalition calling for good governance. This will be in the interest of all of us. But it has to be done in the most civilized fashion and dialogue remains the best international practice”.
In order to address the burning issue, particularly in making some of the federal government’s palliative programs function, Bamisile urged state governors to equally distribute the food products provided by Tinubu’s government in order to mitigate the inflationary effect.
“Currently, the federal government is providing 740 truckloads of rice to the country’s 774 local governments, in addition to a series of food relief packages distributed to states through our national reserves.
“Our governors must complement what the federal government was doing by making sure that these items get to the targeted population. The failure of this policy was fueling the anger in town.
“These reported cases of diversions in some states were disheartening and won’t be in the interest of anybody. I believe that citizens should begin to hold their leaders at the state level accountable for some of these wicked acts”.
