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Mr. Ayogu Chukwuemeka, a farmer from the South-East region, believes that President Tinubu’s poor policy decisions and inadequate response to the nation’s challenges have fueled the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests, which are gaining momentum nationwide.
The farmer stressed that President Tinubu must act quickly to address the protesters’ grievances, as inaction could lead to a national emergency, potentially culminating in the termination of the current democratic government.
Chukwuemeka made this statement while interacting with journalists in Abakaliki on Monday, criticizing Senator Akpabio’s comments as a clear demonstration of the government’s insensitivity to the people’s plight.
“The ongoing nationwide protest is primarily a popular demonstration against hunger occasioned by insensitive and unpopular Federal Government policies.”
Chukwuemeka criticized the subsidy removal as a hasty decision, similar to performing surgery on a patient without ensuring they can withstand the procedure, highlighting the absence of supporting measures like local refinery activation.
Allegations of top government officials’ ownership of Malta refineries, if substantiated, highlight a mind-boggling level of corruption, casting a dark shadow over Nigeria’s future, where leaders appear more focused on personal aggrandizement than national progress.
“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 is 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 dry season, without using air conditioners to regulate the temperature, heat-induced sickness would kill many.”
Read also: Tinubu Committed To Revitalizing S-East’s Region – Kalu
Mr Chukwuemeka, who urged the youths to continue the protests until the Federal Government addressed their demands, noted that stopping now would become a licence for unaccountability and corruption on the part of the governments.
He 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.
“The protesters should continue until President Bola Tinubu reverts the petrol price to where he met it at least and also until he reverses the tariff of electricity to where he met it. If the protesters stop halfway, it will become a licence for unaccountability and corruption by a clique ranking Senator Ali Ndume described as ‘kakistocrats’ and ‘kleptocrats.’”
It was cautioned that if those wielding power were allowed to breach the public’s trust with impunity, they would be likely to persist in their harmful actions, potentially sounding the death knell for the country’s fragile democracy, as the current leadership appeared to be more interested in feathering their own nests than in fulfilling their obligations to the people.
