The current hardship in the country is the creation of President Bola Tinubu whose policies have heightened the cost of living and reduced the purchasing power of the national currency. This is the view of an Ebonyi farmer, Ayogu Chukwuemeka, who said that President Tinubu’s unpopular policies and ineptitude over the plights of the citizenry were responsible for the #EnbBadGovernanceIn Nigeria protests across the country.
This was as he called on the President to as a matter of urgency attend to the demands of the protesters, as failure to do so, had the potential of causing a national cataclysm, that may lead to the abortion of the current civil rule in the country. He stated this during an interaction with journalists, in Abakaliki, saying, “Nothing conveys the insensitivity of those running the present government like the words that came out of Senator Godswill Akpabio.
“The protest is primarily a popular demonstration against hunger occasioned by insensitive and unpopular Federal Government policies.”
The manner the petroleum subsidy was removed on the swearing-in day of President Tinubu was like carrying out a surgical operation on a patient who is too weak to stand the procedure. There were no remediations like getting some of the local refineries operational, for instance, to cushion the impact of the subsidy removal. The stories with the Malta refineries owned by top government officials as alleged, if true, make the Nigeria situation hopeless. In this case, it becomes a case of humongous, reckless corruption by those at the helm of affairs.
“The fact that Mr. President did not cut down the petroleum price is a bad omen. It must be noted that an average tuber of yam, hitherto sold for N800 is now N9,000. The price of petrol in Nigeria is fundamental to national survival because the movement of people and goods from one place to another involves the use of petrol. Therefore, bringing down the petrol price will automatically bring down the cost of food.
“Another cause of national anger is the careless hike in the electricity tariff. A unit of electricity hitherto sold for N87 is now N225. Most homes can no longer preserve their food using a freezer. They can no longer use their air conditioners due to extremely high electricity tariffs. The implications are numerous: without energy to preserve cooked food means increased cost of food because cooking becomes every day for the very foodstuffs whose prices are already hitting the rooftops. Malnutrition could set in and kwashiorkor which was a human tragedy during the Biafra war would be back in peace time. Towards the dry season, without using air conditioners to regulate the temperature, heat-induced sickness would kill many.”
Mr. Chukwuemeka added, “It is clear that those at the head of government do not just care. In the words of the Nigerian Senate President, Senator Akpabio, ‘When they are demonstrating (against bad government) we (in power) will be eating.’ Nothing conveys the insensitivity of those running the present government like these words that came out of Senator Akpabio.
“There are rumours that regions who lost the presidential election in 2023 were behind the unrest. While anything is possible, the present hunger created by President Tinubu’s decisions is not helping him. It has the potential to cause a national cataclysm and then abort the civil rule.”
