Hardship: Cleric warns against protest

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The former Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, Rev John Joseph Hayab, has lamented with deep concern the rate at which poverty eats deep into the pockets of Nigerians.
The Clergy however advised Nigerians to be guarded in the way the predicament is handled, to avoid grave setbacks for ourselves as a result.
According to him, the rising number of protests in different parts of the country in a bid to record citizens’ grievances due to the increasing inflation of prices on goods and services is no more a joke or drama act, thereby admitting that the hike in prices of commodities means that most Nigerians do not find things easy.
He stressed that most Nigerians, if not all, in one way or the other, feel the impact of the present economic challenges heightened by insecurity and misery.
He added that Nigerians should not allow anyone, group, or organization to instigate them to embark on street protests due to the high cost of living because some bad elements may hijack the protest to destroy the gains the nation must have made over the years compounding the current suffering and impacting the future.
Despite the hardship, Rev Hayab appealed to Nigerians to seek other ways such as peaceful public advocacy to register the grievances of the citizens on the biting economic suffering in the country, noting that violence has never done any good in the history of man on the planet Earth.
“Any form of protest which destroys government buildings, establishments or any infrastructures, certainly, will do us no good. “