Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMPN) has called on patriotic Nigerians, home and abroad, to prevail on the protesting youths in some parts of the country to halt the protests in the country’s interest.
The group said there is an urgent need to restore peace and stability in the country.
The national coordinator of MMPN, Alh. Ibrahim Abdullahi, who spoke with LEADERSHIP in Ilorin, Kwara State, said, “It is the way forward”.
He recalled that his association had warned Nigerians that protests would only aggravate the problems they are faced with rather than ameliorate them.
“The nationwide protests, though, did not cover the whole country. Its negative effects have so far affected the whole nation, as fears, anxiety, and palpable insecurity pervades the country till now,” Abdullahi said.
On the resultant effects of the protests, Abdullahi said,” As expected, innocent lives were lost, and property belonging to individuals and governments were destroyed. At the same time, hoodlums, miscreants and criminals looted several valuables.”
Abdullahi lamented that the two methods of complaints approved by Islam- prayer and dialogue, to prevent tragedies that occurred were ignored by the protesters.
He appealed to the protesters to call off the protests and give peace a chance by dialoguing with the constituted authorities and intensifying prayers to resolve the crises.
While commending the security operatives for maintaining law and order during the crisis, he 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 refining petroleum products in Nigeria for local consumption and export; as well as fighting the inflationary trends aggressively making lives unbearable for the common man.”