#EndBadGovernance protests: We’re ready for dialogue, says Northern youths
…Give deadline
Maureen Aguta
The Arewa Youth Assembly for Good Leadership (AYAGL) has disclosed its readiness to dialogue with the Federal Government over the demands of Nigerians, especially the youths participating in the ongoing nationwide #EndBadGovernance protest.
According to the youths, the government has till the end of next week to commence the dialogue process or will be left with no option than to return to the streets in protest, reports Nigerian Tribune.
Speaker of the AYAGL, Ambassador Andul Danbature, who is one of the organisers of the protest stated this yesterday in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna.
Danbature, who explained why the protest was suspended, said, “We started this movement because we want to express our grievances and anger and the need for the federal government to meet our needs.
“Some of our demands include, the return back of fuel subsidy, creation of employment opportunities for youths, stoppage of payment to ex-governors, relocation of all service Chiefs to North West to address insecurity holistically dress insecurity holistically and reversal of harsh government policies among several others.
“We however commended the Federal Government for calling for dialogue which we have agreed to because the peaceful protest which we started has been hijacked by hoodlums which is not part of our plans and that is why we have suspended the protest to take the part of dialogue with the government.
“Our major problem is the removal of fuel subsidy and naira devaluation which has affected poor masses and resulted in unemployment. There is no single development on ground that will benefit the poor masses directly; all we know is that money is being released from the federation account to the National Assembly and also to the governors.
“When we started this movement, we sensitised the youths to understand that our major problem is the governors who sit on allocations from the Federal Government. We also engaged our coordinator at the local government to engage the governors.
“We are ready to dialogue with the Federal Government on our demands and we are giving the government between now and next week, in which failure to do so, we will return back to the streets and continue the protest,” he stressed.