Former Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf, says state governments and businesses are yet to recover from the effects of the #EndSARS protests of October 2020.
Ahead of the one year anniversary of the protest, an economist, Mr Yusuf, said the economic implication of the protest, hijacked by hoodlums, was enormous.
“There was a lot of destruction of public and private property and these cost a lot of money. We are talking of hundreds of millions of naira.
“As I speak to you, many of the private sector investors that were affected are yet to recover from the shock and the setback caused by the destruction.
“There were also a lot of public property that were destroyed which also cost billions of naira.
“Many of the governments affected have not been able to fix those properties because they don’t have the finance. So from the destruction point of view, I think a lot was lost,” he said.
Mr Yusuf, who is the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, canvassed for government and citizen engagement as the best way forward.
“These were complaints that had been on for a number of years and because these complaints were not addressed, it eventually led to an implosion.
“When people have grievances and those grievances are not addressed promptly, it leads to an accumulation of anger and any little trigger can cause chaos.
“So the government needs better engagement with the citizens so that things will not get to the level that it will degenerate to violence and protests,” Mr Yusuf added.
(NAN)