Vice President, Industrial Global Union, Comrade Issa Aremu, has blamed the ongoing #EndSARS protests on exclusion of youths in governance, noting that it’s a wake up call for Nigerian government to include youth in its activities.
The Labour leader said it was an opportunity for Nigerian governments to integrate the youths into socio- economic development of the country, as he argued that the youth have been pushed to the margins of the society for too long through mass youth unemployment, prolonged closures of universities due to ASUU strikes, income poverty and police criminalization.
Addressing a press conference in Kaduna on Tuesday, Aremu said, “The crisis at hand is nothing but the price for youth exclusion. If you don’t keep them busy in schools as students, in factories for those with decent jobs, if you don’t stop harassing and criminalizing them on the streets, what you have is what we are seeing on our streets.
“The protest is a legitimate clarion call for inclusive development which must be harnessed by various authorities through government – youth engagement.”
He commended some of the state governors for constituting the judicial panels to unravel the atrocities of the defunct SARS, adding that federal government should launch the much expected 777,000 jobs to creatively keep the youths engaged, have a truce with ASUU, reopen the universities and get the students off the streets back to the classrooms.
Comrade Aremu said the Industrial Global Union promotes active integration of young workers into the unions as well as development through youth employment and education. He said the Union is willing to partner with the government to resolve the present impasse.
The labour leader observed that it was time Nigeria “reaped the demographic dividend with a positive impact on economic growth, political stability, by allowing for inclusivity in all aspects of development. We must replace state capture by the few with mass state democratization that must involve the youths and women”.
Comrade Aremu, who was the Chairman of the Youth and Labour Sub-Committee of the 2014 National Conference said, “A youth bulge offers opportunity for development, not a threat. He advised the protesting youths to urgently diversify their strategy from the streets already vulnerable to violence to negotiating tables and meaningful results.
“To the extent that the streets draw attention to your plights, street protests have their value. But the youths must also realize that it was on the streets many of them were brutalized by some police. So the earlier they get off the streets to meaningful discussions with the authorities to punish police brutalities, get them sustainable jobs and return them back to classrooms. The streets have their limitations including providing covers for violent opportunists!”
While acknowledging the trust deficit between the police and the protesters, the labour leader urged the protesting youths to give the current Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu, the necessary support to realise the implementation of the new Police Special Weapons Tactical Team (SWAT) launched in lieu of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
