September 18, (THEWILL) – Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has expressed deep concern over the escalating hardship in Nigerians, noting that the situation is getting out of control.
Highlighting the severity of the situation, Abdulsalami disclosed that a forum, to which he belongs, has submitted proposals to the Federal Government outlining strategies beyond mere palliatives.
“Everybody is crying about this hardship and it seems to be getting out of control. People cannot afford three square meals. The issue of transportation, the hike in fuel prices, the hike in school fees for the children and the lack of funds in everybody’s pocket are making life difficult for everybody. We will continue to encourage the government to introduce measures to soften the hardship. The federal, states and local governments should see how they can cushion this economic hardship,” he said on Tuesday.
Abdulsalami spoke in Minna, the Niger State capital when he received the leadership of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), led by Abdullahi Mohammed Jabi, who paid him a birthday visit.
The CD delegation had asked him to prevail on President Bola Tinubu to find a solution to the hunger in the land.
The former ruler said he belonged to a forum that had made recommendations to the Federal Government on the way out of the economic hardship in the land.
“I would like to inform you that in some of the proposals we have given to the government on another platform, giving palliatives is not the answer to the high prices of food and other items in the country. There is a need for the government to flood and saturate the communities with food, let them (government) buy food and sell at lesser prices to the people so that people will try to buy some of these food items depending on their pockets/ income.
“We have passed these recommendations to the government, we hope they will implement it.”
On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest slated for October 1, Abdulsalami appealed to Nigerians, “For God’s sake, when you demonstrate, do it peacefully”, recalling that in the last demonstration, “we saw unnecessary, uncalled for carnage, theft and criminalities”.
According to him, “People, instead of demonstrating, went about looting even private houses, private individuals suffered in the hands of the demonstrators. If at all we are going to demonstrate, let us know this is why we are demonstrating, let us not inflict hardship on fellow Nigerians.”
Abdulsalami said the government should listen to the demonstrators, stressing, “You cannot beat a child and prevent it from crying.”
Earlier, the leader of the delegation said they were at the former head of state’s residence to rejoice with him on his birthday. They prayed for a long life and good health for him.
Jabi solicited the support of the former Nigerian leader for the implementation of some of its programmes, especially in the area of mobilisation of Nigerians for active participation in governance.
He drew the attention of their host to the prevailing hunger in the land and urged him to help prevail on the federal government to solve the problem.
