Keeping Peace Is In Your Interest - Buhari To Protesting Youths

President Muhammadu Buhari has advised Nigerian youths to protect the peace of the nation, noting that they would be the prime beneficiaries of a peaceful Nigeria.

The President spoke while hosting the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and former Nigerian Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.

According to him, it is the youths who need and have demanded for jobs, infrastructure and all-round development of the economy, noting that meeting the demands and satisfying the needs would only work in a peaceful Nigeria.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, the President said his administration had already heard the message of the youths and had started taking steps to meet the demands.

“Our own generation is on the last lap, we are exiting,” President Buhari said in response to the recent EndSARS protest, and the mayhem and destruction of public and private property that came in its wake.

“It is in the interest of the youths to keep the peace. They want jobs, infrastructure and development. I have sent a team led by the Chief of Staff (Professor Ibrahim Gambari) to go round the country, talk to traditional rulers, who will then talk to the youths. The views of the youths have been heard,” the President added.

He said that the current administration inherited severe infrastructural deficits, “and that is what we are fighting to correct. We can’t just sit, fold our hands, and do nothing. We are doing our best within the limits of resources.”

President Buhari rued the fact that COVID-19 has shrunk the global economy, noting that “this is something you can’t see, smell, or hear,” but which has wrought devastation on lives and livelihoods round the world.

On climate change, he said Nigeria was concerned about the recharge of the Lake Chad, which has great implications on security, irregular migration, and livelihoods.

The Deputy Secretary-General said she was on a courtesy call with her team to flag interest on challenges that concern the UN, particularly COVID-19, climate change, security, and humanitarian responses to the diverse challenges.