By Wuraola Oyedokun
Yoruba elders under the aegis of Yoruba Council of Elders {YCE} have called on those protesting against hardship in the country to stop the ongoing protests.
YCE urged the protesters to be patient with the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.
In a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, by its Secretary-General, Otunba Oladipo Oyewole, YCE called on every Nigerian to refrain from emotional outbursts.
Oyewole argued that President Tinubu could not have brought about the change within his first year in office. The secretary-general said: ‘’Nigeria has existed as a Republic since 1961 and we have had several Heads of State and many Presidents. That position of Leadership (Head of State/President) is the management and control mechanism of Government and of our resources by those Leaders
‘’Until now, each of our Leaders had their ways of running the economy of the State as they either thought it ought to have been or as they were advised to do.
‘’Some of these people were stack illiterates with no knowledge of basic principles/Science of Management.We have thus had 14 Administrators with different backgrounds and different methods of approach in the management of the affairs of the populace and the vast natural resources with which Africa is endowed.
‘’For Nigeria, a Country blessed with an abundance of human and material resources, there have been thefts and stealing in small and in big dimensions. Our situation started getting worse as the decadence and plundering of Nigeria’s wealth grew to greater heights and corruption surfaced and bared its face in a big dimension
‘’Ever since the plundering have been going on, destruction and looting has not abated with all types of raids and rape of the economy being committed on our Commonwealth
‘’The depth of devastation took its toll on the masses and it diminished the individual welfare of the populace.
‘’President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) thus inherited an economy that had had been plundered. He knew that before assuming office but planned to re-engineer the rot in the Nigerian situation for the better so that all may be well
‘’President Bola Tinubu could not have brought about the change within his first year in office. All the above indicators show that the youths ought to be patient for his ongoing strategies to unfold to effect repairs as it is deemed necessary by the Leader.
‘’It is with the above in mind that the Yoruba Council of Elders condemns the protest of the Youths and calls for every Nigerian to refrain from emotional outbursts. Rather the Youth should turn their backs on bad politicians who are doing all to destroy the progress planned for this Country.Both the old and the young should hold hands to rebuild Nigeria at this time’’.