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By Lukman Olabiyi
A Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSO), understand the umbrella of Lagos People’s Assembly (LPA) has pleaded with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and other groups planning to stage protest over the current economic hardship in the country, to opt for constructive engagement.
The coalition insisted that the only solution to economic challenges is constructive engagements between the government and the citizenry and not protest marches or strikes.
The coalition which were over 80 in number 80, comprising public interests, self determination groups and small business lamented that they are yet to fully recover from the EndSARS protest and COVID-19.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, the Executive Director of Campaign Against Impunity and Domestic Violence (CAIDV), Gbenga Soloki and the Executive Director of Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), Nelson Ekujumi at a press conference in Lagos on Sunday, pleaded with NLC and others to shelve their proposed protest.
“We have watched and listened to how some persons and interest have tried to mislead and confuse the Nigerian people by saying that the retooling of the economy by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration is a foreign economic pill that was prescribed for Nigeria. Absolutely untrue, Nigerians themselves being economically savvy prescribed this solution in order to remove the Nigerian economy from the life support machine that it was plugged in.
“Today, the new economic measures has come with some pains which is not unexpected such as the prices of goods and services shooting up due to so many factors, some of which are within the control of the government and citizenry, we are also aware that the revenue accruing to government at all tiers have increased triple fold.
“Thus, we are living witnesses to the temporary palliative measures put in place to ease the burden on Nigerians by the federal government as well as the recently unveiled palliative measures by the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration in Lagos State which includes reducing public transportation fares by 25%, reducing work days of category of public workers from 5 to 3 days, opening up of 42 Sunday markets to allow Lagosians to buy food stuffs at reduced price, as well as the recently inaugurated committee on palliatives, among several others.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we can see for ourselves that the citizens cries about the economic reality have not gone unheeded not only from the federal government, but also here in Lagos State, where we see local government council administrations also embarking on palliative measures to cushion the effect of the economic challenges on our people.
“It is in this vein, that as the Lagos People’s Assembly (LPA) which is an assemblage of Nigerians of different ethnic, religious and professional calling living and doing business in Lagos, that we are earnestly adding our voice to that of other patriots and men and women of goodwill and peace, to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to shelve it’s two days protest marches for the sake of national peace and security”, the coalition pleaded.
