ABUJA (SUNDIATA POST)- A faith-based non-governmental organization has pleaded with the organizers of the planned nationwide protest to shelve the idea and embrace dialogue with the Federal Government in the interest of peace.
In a press statement issued in Abuja, the Christian Forum for Religious Harmony (CFRH) warned that any protest in any part of the country at this time could ignite unforeseen crises and snowball into massive social unrest.
According to the statement, jointly signed by the National Chairman and Secretary of the Forum, Pastor Jameswealth O. Okonoboh and Pastor Dada Felix Saibu, respectively, “anything that would disrupt the peace and quiet of the nation at this point would inflict more injury on the common man.”
The NGO pleaded with Nigerians to give the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration more time to settle down and sort things out, arguing that “the economic sickness which did not afflict the nation in a single day cannot possibly be healed in one day.”
“As painful as some fiscal decisions taken by President Tinubu are, they are like the bitter pills and injections which have to be administered on a patient in order to cure him, so he has to endure the pain and the bitterness in order to recover gradually,” Pastors Okonoboh and Saibu argued. “Total recovery from a sickness does not occur in a single day.”
The CFRH leaders reminded Nigerians that the common man feels the brunt of every protest and civil unrest more than political leaders and others in governance.
”Let us be honest with ourselves as a nation: each time we take to the streets in protest, especially one of the magnitude that is being planned, hoodlums end up taking undue advantage of the supposedly peaceful procession, looting shops and attacking innocent people, thus causing mayhem and inflicting more injuries on the people they set out to defend.”
They pleaded with Nigerians to listen to the counsel of leaders of thought, notably traditional and religious leaders to maintain peace.
With headquarters in Abuja, the Christian Forum for Religious Harmony is duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as a global campaign against religious intolerance and bloodshed.
