Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has advised Nigerian youths to shelve any planned continuation of #EndSARS protests.
He made the call while revealing that he was privy to intelligence reports stating that the youths were about to resume the protests in some cities on Monday.
In a special broadcast to Nigerian youths on Sunday, the governor said that the nation has yet to recover from the last #EndSARS protests.
Yahaya Bello noted that another round of protests would plunge the nation into further security and economic crisis.
“I deem another round of #EndSARS protests to be premature and counter-productive at this time.
“Apart from the higher likelihood of conflict with the police, we must also admit that the security situation in the country is very precarious at the moment.
“All patriots must, therefore, make conscious efforts not to degrade a parlous security situation further.
“Nationwide protests at this time will only overburden the load-bearing capabilities of our security architecture, increasing the likelihood of total collapse.
“No matter the narrative, I doubt that out-of-control anarchy is an objective of the #EndSARS protests.
“It is also true that we live in an economy that is bleeding badly right now. Traditional responses to COVID-19 has hurt, not just Nigeria, but all other countries of the world. Many have fallen into recession.
“To worsen matters, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) predicted three days ago that the pandemic could push the number of people living in extreme poverty to over one billion by 2030.
“Thank God they are owning up to my earlier prediction, warning and caution.
“Nigeria’s earning and foreign exchange situation is too fragile as we speak to resist sustained shocks.
“Another nationwide protest will worsen the multidimensional poverty indices all over our country and work greater hardship on the ordinary Nigerians we claim to be advocating for,” Yahaya Bello stated.
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