The Arewa Youth Ambassadors, a prominent northern group, has affirmed its commitment to proceed with the planned protest on August 1st, 2024, to express dissatisfaction with President Bola Tinubu’s policies, which they describe as anti-people.
The group debunked rumours that the protest had been called off, labeling such information as false and misleading, and urging Nigerians to disregard it.
In a statement signed by the National Coordinator, Yahaya M. Abdullahi, on Saturday in Abuja, the group clarified its stance.
“The narrative making the rounds that the Arewa Youth Ambassadors had shelved its planned protest aimed at expressing its dissatisfaction with President Tinubu’s anti-people policies is at best false and at worst misleading.
“Let’s be categorical, there is no going back on our words, as the protest is scheduled for 1st August, 2024,” the statement read.
Abdullahi stated that the protest is a necessary response to the worsening insecurity, food and fuel crises, unemployment, and high cost of living affecting the region and the country.
“We wish to make it clear that the protest becomes necessary considering the insecurity that spirals upward coupled with incessant food and fuel crisis, unemployment, and high cost of living bedeviling our region in particular and the country in general,” he stated.
He added: “If the President Tinubu-led government is for Nigerians as a whole, why on earth the false pretences? It’s so sad and pathetic that sufferings have become unspeakable and pervasive, while the power that is keeps on looking the other way.”
The Arewa Youth Ambassadors reiterated that the protest would proceed unless the government reversed its detrimental policies.
“Arewa Youth Ambassadors state beyond any doubt that the protest will happen on the slated date unless the government reverses its policies that have given rise to gruesome hunger and multidimensional poverty in the land,” the statement concluded.