PLANNED PROTEST: MUSWEN urges Nigerians to be more patient with government
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
A word of caution has been sent to some Nigerians organising a nationwide protest to take caution.
This was contained in a statement signed by Alhaji Rasaki Oladejo, President of the Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN), dated July 26, 2024 and copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER on Friday.
This globalised online newspaper reports that citizens staging the protests, tagged #EndBadGovernance, say they are doing so against unprecedented hunger and hardship ravaging the lives of Nigerians with no solution for over one year now.
But the MUSWEN, making its voice count along with those of other stakeholders in the country, appealed to those planning the protest across the Federation to shelve the idea and embrace dialogue, peaceful and amicable resolution of all the issues at stake.
According to Alhaji Oladejo, “As an umbrella body for the Muslim Communities in the South West, MUSWEN believes in mutual consultation, dialogue and peaceful resolution of any national issue in line with Islamic dictates as contains in the Holy Qur’an.
“MUSWEN implores those behind the proposed national protest over the current economic hardship in the country to realise that such action may be hijacked by some unpatriotic elements thus making it violent and destructive.
“It must be pointed out here that no matter how peaceful a protest might be in Nigeria, hoodlums and miscreants usually participate in it – thus turning the whole exercise into uncontrollable and destructive crises.
“It is important to stress here that organising any public protest now in the country will only worsen already bad situation which the protest wanted to correct and may also lead to destruction of lives and properties.
“In as much as MUSWEN believes in the fact that individuals and groups have freedom to protest, such act must follow its decorum and that the situation in the country now does not call for such.
“MUSWEN therefore call on those aggrieved and have better ideas on how to move the nation forward to be patriotic enough to share such noble ideas with those in the helms of affairs and give them more time to implement such.
“The Muslim Ummah also counsel the government of the day to listen to yearnings of the public and put the machinery in motion to address all their concerns as soon as practicable.
“We pray for the peace, unity and prosperity of the country while calling on government to expedite action in cushioning the effects of the policies on the citizenry,” he said in the statement.
