The speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Danladi Jatau, has appealed to religious and political leaders to advise their followers to shelve the planned August 1 nationwide protests and give the government time to fix the country’s problems.

The speaker made the call on Sunday in Lafia while reacting to the planned hunger protests by Nigerians scheduled to take place from August 1 to 10.

”I want to advise stakeholders, both political, religious and traditional, to join hands with the government to address the challenges facing the country,” said Mr Jatau.

He added, ”They should talk to their subjects to shun the planned hunger protest scheduled for August in the country, considering what may be its effect.”

The speaker said the protest against hunger aimed at ending bad governance in the country should be reconsidered.

” And dialogue should take the centre stage from both sides to reach an amicable resolution and workable solutions,” he added.

Mr Jatau urged the citizens to give the government more time to address the economic situation and other challenges.

He said that giving the government more time would enable them to roll out more different policies and programmes that would improve the standard of living of Nigerians.

The speaker believed that the problems were surmountable with both short-term and long-term measures, hence the need for his call for more time to be given to the government to fix the problems.

” I want to appeal to our citizens and other Nigerians not to protest the economic situation, but they should pray and support the government at levels to address the challenges, which no doubt are enormous.

” As prayer is key and solution to every problem and every leader needs prayers and support of his people to succeed,” Mr Jatau said.

He also called on the security agencies to ensure the protection of lives and property and that peace continues to reign supreme in the country.

The speaker assured us of his leadership commitment to passing laws and making resolutions to improve the standard of living of the state’s people.

(NAN)