By PETER ANOSIKE

The Vice Chairman of Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, Mrs Maureen Ashara, has added her voice to the growing calls by concerned and well- meaning Nigerians for the proposed August 1 #EndbadGovernance Protest to be shelved.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, she appealed to the organizers to exercise restraint and give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu time in the interest of peace and national development.

According to her, there is no doubt that Nigerians are going through trying time.

However, she said that protest would not be the solution to the challenges since there cannot be development in the absence of peace.

She said that she strongly believes that the on-going reforms and economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will soon turn the fortunes of the country around for the better.

According to her, President Tinubu means well for the country and he is tirelessly working through the Renewed Hope Agenda to rejuvenate the economy of the nation.

“I am appealing to the Nigerian youths to exercise restraint and give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu some time for his laudable reforms and economic policies to materialize. He is just one year in office and everybody knows that most of the time, things don’t exactly work from the beginning. There is always time to sow and time to reap. Nobody sows and reaps at the same time. The president means well and he understands what Nigerians are going through and working night and day to address it. The best that we can do as lovers of this country is to give him some time,” she said.

Mrs Ashara said as a mother, she is urging the youths to learn lessons from the past protests like the EndSARS and the recent protest in Kenya, both of which started peacefully but ended with a lot of people losing their lives.

“I appeal to the organizers of the protest to heed the voice of reason and learn from these incidents. I am a mother and like all mothers, we don’t want our sons and daughters losing their lives in their prime. They may have good intention but they cannot rule out the possibility of hoodlums hijacking the protest and turning it into a different thing Like I said earlier, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policies and reforms may seem not to be working now, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. He has been in office for less than a year. Let’s give him the time needed to correct the abnormalities of the past so we can achieve a nation that fulfills our collective hopes and aspirations,” Mrs Ashara said.