Concerned by the need to sustain peace and harmonious relationship among Lagosians, youths across the state under the umbrella of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) have distanced themselves from the 10-day hunger protest scheduled for August 1st, to protect lives and property in the state.
The young Lagosians, meanwhile, have embarked on engagement of their peers in communities that may have signed up for the protest and those yet to decide on benefits of dialoguing with governments to address their challenges rather than embarking on a protest that disrupt activities in the state.
The youths also disclosed that they have intensified their engagements with Council chairmen and other major stakeholders saddled with grassroots development, on benefits of establishing communication channel between their offices and the youths in their communities in Lagos.
Apparently still troubled by the destruction that trailed the 2020 EndSARS protests, the NYCN Lagos chapter led by its chairman, Olalekan Adigun, meanwhile, urged the sponsors to back down from the protest and embrace dialogue.
While stressing that they will not be participating in the 10-day demonstration that could halt progress being achieved across Lagos, the chairman urged young Lagosians especially those not affiliated with the council, to partner NYCN in its quest to champion dialogue with government for mutual benefits.
Adigun noted that dialogue could achieve better solution without engaging in any violent protest across the country, saying previous experience and current situation in Kenya and Bangladesh have proven dialogue supersedes protests.
According to him, “Such protests often end up being counterproductive, hence we distance ourselves from them and call on the organisers to rethink and embrace dialogue.
“In this challenging time, it is important that we come together with a shared vision of unity and cleared understanding. We strongly believe in the power of constructive dialogue and diplomatic exercise of fundamental human rights to press home our demands for desired actions”, he added.
Adigun, meanwhile, dispelled rumours that the government was funding youths to protest against the August 1st demonstration, saying the grassroots engagement and other initiative embarked upon by NYCN were financed from the council’s purse.
He added: “We aren’t a partisan council, and for everything that we do are in accordance with the constitution of the council. And that is done because we are protecting the interest of young Lagosians.
“Also, we will be doing this because many of us often blame the leaders at the centre neglecting the grassroots.
“And at the grassroots, we failed to realize that there are different leadership at that level. So it is our intention that we leverage on the 57 structures across the councils to engage the Local Government chairmen, students and teenagers and others. This is our commitment and we believe that in time, the Nigerian people will also see reasons for it.
“At the moment, we have intensified our dialogue mechanism, engaging the government at the grassroots. And when we are done with that, we will collate our findings and present it to the State Government for implementation.
