Hunger Protest: Otu's Aide, Odere, Hails C'Riverians For Peaceful Conduct, Says State Yet To Recover Form EndSARS

By Judex OKORO Cross River Commissioner for Finance, Mr Mike Odere, has commanded the people of the state for peaceful disposition during the Hunger Protest.

Odere hailed the youths for listening to the government even as he explained that the present administration in the state had always made their welfare a priority since assumption of office.

Odere described as "humongous" the economic effect of haven to shutdown private and government businesses for days.

He said: "We know the country is sort of challenged, but it's not unique to Nigeria.

"However, what we are saying is that if we have to protest, it should be done with decorum.

We protest to make a change, we protest to be heard, we protest to say things are not being done rightly.

"Protest is no longer one when we begin to infringe on the fundamental human rights of other people.

"Again, we do not do cost analysis before embarking on these protests.

Cross River is yet to recover from the EndSARS protest of 2020.

"A lot of assets were destroyed in 2020 and we would spent humongous amount of tax payers money to build what were destroyed and those things are yet to back to their original state as we speak.

"People taking advantage of protest to loot and destroy properties is very bad. It make sense to understand the reason for a protest and the social economic benefits to get from such protest," he stated.

Odere, however, noted that the government is not unaware of the plight of Nigerians and have also seen the reason for their protest, assuring that the government, both at the federal and sub-national, are working to make life easy for the people.

According to him, "one of the things that the federal government has done is to sell crude oil to local refineries in naira.

"The social economic effect of this singular act is what we can't quantify.

It's going to save us billions of naira. This might just be what will crash gas prices in Nigeria. If this happens, cost of running business in Nigeria will begin to come down.

"In Cross River, the government is carrying our several reforms whose impact may not be immediately felt especially in area of education, agriculture, solid minerals, security just as reforms are being carried out in other sectors..

"We are also creating a platform where people will have free interaction with the government, understand the government plans and prepare themselves to key into these plans.

"We will try to communicate more, lead an open and transparent government to get the people to understand what we are trying to do.

"Cross River is the second most economically viable state in the country, we can breakout from the center, not for administrative purposes, but social economic stand point.

"Very soon the people will begin to see what we have been doing under the table," Odere explained.

The Commissioner pointed out that the state is yet to recover from scale of destruction witnessed in 2020 ENDSARS, adding that it was the reason the government tried all it could to prevent a repeat of such in the ongoing nationwide hunger protest.