Ahead of the planned protests across the country, the FCT Minister, Barrister Ezenwo Nezam Wike, on Saturday, held an interactive town hall meeting with residents as part of the peace-building process in the Federal Capital Territory.
Addressing the residents during the meeting, the Minister said it was organized to provide an avenue for dialogue with various stakeholders and to allow them to air their grievances, rather than taking to the streets to protest against the government.
The Minister said protests would not solve any problem but would rather create an opportunity for hooligans to take advantage of the situation to foment trouble.
He warned that the FCT Administration will not allow any protest that is geared towards destruction or to overthrow the government and cautioned residents against aligning with those he described as faceless protesters.
The Minister acknowledged that FCT residents have the constitutional right to protest, but cautioned that such protests must be done within the ambit of the law.
He said, “Protests do not solve any problem. Protests rather create more problems because hooligans, hoodlums would always want to take advantage to foment problems and create crises”.
Reacting to the purported written requests for permission to protest at the Eagle Square in the FCT, the Minister said he only heard about the request on social media and television.
He said any request to protest in the FCT must be addressed to his office, adding that certain conditions must also be fulfilled before the requests are granted.
He said, “Who are these people who want to protest? I’m just reading on social media that they’ve applied to me to grant the Eagle Square. Do you apply to me through social media? You will write a letter to the Minister. Who are you? I will see you. What do you want to do? How many days do you want to spend? How much will you pay?
“When people want to do propaganda in everything; I watched them on Channels news telling the IG they have applied. You don’t apply to me through Channels. You must apply properly. You must pay what they call security cost so that if there is any damage with the facilities, we take that security cost and repair.
“We don’t just give people just because you have applied. You will fulfill the condition”.
Noting that peace was necessary for the development of any society, the Minister said everything possible would be done to see that peace is maintained in the FCT.
He therefore thanked the stakeholders in the FCT, including the traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society organizations and representatives of youth groups, as well as women leaders for their support to the FCT Administration and for committing to peace building in the FCT and assured of continued dialogue with residents.
Reacting to the requests for inclusion of women and youths in governance in the FCT, the Minister stated that the youth and women have been adequately represented in his cabinet with appointments as Mandate Secretaries and other key positions and assured that they would not be abandoned in subsequent appointments.
He said, “If you check in our cabinet, it’s made of youths too. The coordinator of the Satellite Towns is a Youth. The Mandate Secretary of Area Council is a Youth. The General Council is a Youth. So, if you have an eight-member cabinet, and you have three as youths, then you cannot say the youths have not been carried along”.
The Minister also stated that following the establishment of the FCT Civil Service Commission and the subsequent reforms of the Service, four out of the ten staff appointed as Permanent Secretaries are women.
On the request for the creation of a Youth Secretariat in the FCT Administration, the Minister assured that he would forward the request to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, adding that the Secretariat would be established upon approval by the President.
The Minister, who also noted that the FCT, for the first time, has their son as a Minister in the Federal cabinet, said the appointment of a non-indigene to represent the FCT in the Public Complaints Commission will be brought to the attention of the President for correction.
He said, “As a president, I don’t think that he knows everything. These are appointments, thousands of people submit names; some people can be mischievous; he won’t know until the attention is brought to him. That is the way it is done.
“So, I thank God you did not go to protest on the road. This is what we are talking about in the dialogue. When you dialogue, people will take correction.
“When you discuss, people will say oh this is the mistake we have made. Let us correct the mistake and that is Mr. President for you. He has never told you that he will not make a mistake. He is human. He would make mistakes. That’s why he’s a human being.
“But what is important is that when you call his attention that this is a mistake made, he has that penchant for correcting such mistakes. So, please let nobody bother to go and carry placards or whatever to go on the street. It’s something that will be sorted out”.
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