Accord Party: Leader Cautions Youths Not To Participate In Protests Against Tinubu

A chieftain of the Accord Party (AP) in Oyo state, Said Ajadi, has cautioned Nigerian youths not to join disgruntled politicians to protest against the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government.

A section of the opposition has been mobilising Nigerian youths for a 10-day protest beginning from Aug 1-10, against policies of the government, which they alleged has spiked hardship across the nation and has added to food insecurity and inflation.

Ajadi, at a press conference which was held at his Agidingbi, I keja office on Thursday, July 18, said rather than condemn President Tinubu, he should be praised for his courage to address the nation’s many challenges.

Ajadi, who was a two-time aspirant for the Senate in Oyo State, under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and a two-time gubernatorial aspirant under the Accord Party, in 2019 and 2023, said he is coming out in defence of the president because of his conviction that Tinubu does not only have the solution to the myriads of problems besetting the country but is applying himself to it.

Ajadi who laid the blame for the country’s present crisis on the door of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, wondered at the wisdom behind stripping the country of all its businesses and assets, leaving it with the moribund refineries which have continued to guzzle money without any benefit to Nigerians.

He said: “All these pseudo economists and Brettonwood Institution experts who advised the privatization of all the nation’s businesses are wrong, even as he wondered at the wisdom of paying off the nation’s debts when we ought to use the huge benefit to our collective advantage”.

He observed that Nigeria has been sliding since that period, eventually culminating in the situation we find ourselves in today as a nation.

“Rather than lead a violent protest against the only president with robust democratic credentials, Nigerians should rally behind him and be patriotic enough to look at how to move the nation away from the present crisis.

“I challenge every one of us to introspect and see how we are also contributing to the food crisis we have found ourselves in and make a decision for change,” he said.

He wondered how the nation could ever grow with the kind of divisive citizens we now have, even as he faulted the APC government for its winner-take-all approach to governance which he urged the president to change for the nation to make progress.

Proffering solutions to the rocketing food crisis, Ajadi urged the Federal Government to come up with Price Control Boards and let the full weight of the law be meted to anyone going against the government’s good intentions on food security.

He also urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to halt their agitation for strike as an alternative to the negotiation with the Federal Government over the lingering wage crisis.

“The fact remains that the federal government needs some understanding as regards the minimum wage. Allowing the state governments to have a buy-in into the minimum wage is the president’s way of ensuring that all the governments are able to pay the new wage bill. Decentralizing the minimum wage is a way of avoiding the crisis where the governments would stay off because of their inability to pay.”

Ajadi said he will continue to rally support for the Tinubu administration despite belonging to a different party because of his commitment to one Nigeria.