The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), the apex sociopolitical youth group in the South East geopolitical zone, has called on Nigerian youths to shun the planned protest and redirect their strength to farming and agriculture, which remain the major means of ending food scarcity and hunger.
In a statement issued in Owerri on Thursday by the President General of COSEYL, Comrade Goodluck Ibem, he said that money without food to buy cannot end hunger, but active farming by all Nigerian youths will end hunger and food scarcity.
He regretted that youths who before now used to assist our fathers and mothers on the farm have abandoned farming and gone into naira betting and other means of unholy acts of livelihood, which contravene our norms and values as a people.
He said, “The desire for quick money among youths is one of the major causes of food scarcity and hunger.”.
According to him, some of the people who are backing and supporting the planned protest against the administration of President Tinubu because of hunger are the same people who are sponsoring armed bandits, Boko Haram, and other terrorist groups that are barring farmers from going to farm in the north.
The PG said that the planned protest is not burned out of genuine love for our country but rather a deliberate attempt to sow seeds of discord and disunity amongst Nigerians.
He said, “It is a clear plot by anti-democratic forces and enemies of the nation to invite ethnic tensions and create political instability. But their plot is dead on arrival.”.
He said that the organisers of the protest are plotting to choke ethnic division and undermine national unity and harmony in the nation.
The body insisted that they will continue to work diligently by giving their unalloyed support to the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the growth, progress, unity, and development of our dear country.
While recognising and appreciating the untiring efforts of the administration to tackle the myriad of issues and challenges confronting our nation, they commend the President and his capable team for implementing the Renewed Hope Agenda, which has positioned the nation on the path of progress and development.
He said: ‘The hunger and food shortage in the country have proof beyond every reasonable doubt that though money is good, money can’t buy everything. It is only active and dedicated farming and agriculture by Nigerian youths that can stop food scarcity and hunger.”
The youth body called on those communities in the North whose farmlands and villages have been taken over by dangerous armed bandits and terrorists to hold their leaders responsible for such atrocities because they failed in their duties and obligations to their people.
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