*Photo: Alh. Ibrahim Abdullahi*
Patriotic Nigerians have been called-upon to prevail on protesting youths in some parts of the country to call-off the remnants of protests still existing to restore peace and stability in the nation.
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria made this call on Wednesday in a press statement released and signed by its National Coordinator, Alh. Ibrahim Abdullahi.
The Group said it believes that this ‘Is the way Forward’.
It recalled its earlier warning to the citizens of the country three weeks ago that protests would aggravate the problems facing the people rather than ameliorating them.
The Muslim Media Watch Group stated further that the nationwide protests though it did not cover the whole country, fears, anxiety and palpable insecurity pervades the entire nation.
On the resultant effects of the protests, the Group stated that as expected, innocent lives were lost, property belonging to individual and governments were destroyed, while several valuables were looted by hoodlums, miscreants and criminals.
MMWG said that it was unfortunate that the two methods of complaining approved by Islam to prevent the tragedies that occured which is prayers and dislogue were ignored by the protesters.
It appealed to the protesters to call-off the protests and ‘give peace a chance’ by dialoguing with the constituted authorities and intensify prayers to resolve the crises.
While commending the security agencies for maintaining law and order during the crisis, the Group appealed to the Federal Government not to be too rigid in its policies and programmes; rather it should look for ways of ameliorating the sufferings of the people by urgently initiating the dialogue process that would address some fundamental issues such as reduction of fuel prices, expediting action on refinning petroleum products in Nigeria for local consumption and export; as well as fighting aggressively the inflationary trends making lives unbearable for the commonman.
Other areas the Group maintained are provision of sufficient power for domestic and industrial use, holistic fight against corruption, reduction of cost of governance and terrible depreciation of Nigeria value against foreign currencies.
The Group commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the suspension of payment of custom duties on food and drug items as well as his instruction to NNPCL to sell crude to Dangote Refinery in Naira instead of dollars.
It however urged the President to deal with anybody flouting his orders aimed at reducing the hardship facing the people, describing those people as saboteurs and not friends of the Government as they pretend to be, adding those people must have hidden agenda of supporting fuel importation to drain our hard-earned resources protect their own selfish interests.
The Group praised the Nigerian Military for reburfing the treasonable offer to overthrow a democratically elected Government; which could further complicate the problems facing the Country and urged the Military to continue to maintain their highly respected integrity and maintainance of law and order.
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria is a Non-Governmental Organization comprising of Muslim Journalists and other Professionals commited to professional and ethical standards in media practice and other professions.
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