Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State has called on the Federal Government to take the demands and agitations of the #EndBadGovernance protesters to heart, describing the ongoing #EndBadGovernance protest as genuine and a wakeup call to government at all levels.
According to him, though, the protest might be unpopular especially with the way and manner it is carried out in some states across the country, the message is clear and the demands are genuine.
The governor, in a statewide broadcast, acknowledged that there was hunger and general poverty in the land.
“None of us can deny the fact that there is hunger and general poverty in the land; this has been made worse by the harsh economic realities, a deficient policy direction and the insensitivity of the national government to engage the citizens civilly.
“As leaders of the people, we must at all times not only listen but act. The lesson we must derive from this protest is the constant reminder that it is not enough to tell the citizens, ‘We have heard’ we must be seen as doing the needful in providing solutions to citizens concerns,” Fintiri said.
The governor also said that his government was not blind to the pains and agonies, and was doing everything humanly possible to come up with permanent and lasting solutions.
“Good governance is your right and that is what we have all sworn to give you. That is our trademark in Adamawa State. As a government, we don’t really need a protest to remind us of this sacred responsibility. We are doing our best to cushion the effect of your hardship,” he said.
He further explained steps taken by his administration to bring succor and relief to the citizens of the state, stressing that the only solution to hunger is to give agriculture topmost priority.
“The only solution to hunger is to take agriculture more seriously. In this direction, we have been very proactive by constituting a food security committee with the mandate to aggressively drive a youth-to-farm campaign.
“The committee is working round the clock to ensure every local government has a demonstration farm of a minimum of 300 hectares where our youths would be trained on modern agriculture practice with inputs freely provided.”
Read also: Protest: FG lists increased FAAC, rice palliatives, other supports to states from July 2023
To cushion the effect of transport hardship on the citizens, the governor has promised to deploy additional 30 more luxury busses to ply the roads.
“We are also going to allocate a substantial number of the busses to our schools to fix the harsh transportation void for our student,” the governor said.
On addressing the hydra-headed monster called unemployment, the governor maintained that since the government cannot employ all the unemployed, the state has created the Ministry of Entrepreneurship to build the capacity of youths to innovate, own and manage investments successfully.
“We have trained and are training many youths who are willing to be off the street and creating enabling environment for SMEs to thrive. Through the Fintiri Business Wallet, we have so far, empowered more than 30,000 beneficiaries and have concluded the process of capturing another 10,000 beneficiaries.
The governor thanked protesters for conducting themselves peacefully, stating that it is their constitutional right as citizens to do so and a wakeup call to the government.
He explained that the peaceful protest witnessed in the state has given him an edge to move freely and officially inspect ongoing projects in the state.
Appreciating the traditional rulers and religious leaders, Fintiri acknowledged them for preaching peaceful coexistence in their domains and places of worship. He also thanked the security agencies for maintaining the law and order.
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