CUPP asks Tinubu to convene a National Confab over Economic Hardship

The Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to as a matter of priority convene a national conference where the nation’s critical stakeholders would gather to brainstorm on finding lasting solutions to the myraids of challenges bedevilling the country.
This is comming following the crises of insecurity and high cost of living in the country for which the government of day is looking overwhelmed

The Coalition made the call last Tuesday when some of its leaders paid a courtesy call on one of its patrons, Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu, National Chairman of African Democratic Party, (ADC), at the party’s National secretariat in Abuja.

The team which was led by CUPP National Secretary, Chief Peter Ameh, consisted of Dr. Tanko Yunusa, Spokesperson Obi-datti Media, Barr Chukwudi Ezeobika, Chairman Media Committee, CUPP spokesperson Comrade Mark Adebayo, and others.

The group stated that it was time for the opposition united to speak up for the benefit of humanity, Nigerians, the country and safety and protection of the hard earned democracy.

Speaking on the necessity of the national conference, Chief Nwosu stated that is time to call for national conversation bringing all the political parties and other critical stakeholders, Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, on a roundtable so that they can all come up with a solution.

Chief Nwosu noted that the state of the nation today compared to 2014 when the last Confab was held can be described as more tragic and deadly.

He said: “The conversation should take multi-dimensional composition as we are going to talk about issue of national food security, political configuration and security in the country.

“The president is one who has been part of the struggle when we were fighting for the military to go, and this is the first time we are having one of the people who championed the effort to get the military out become the president but unfortunately this is the time that democracy has taken the biggest nosedive.
He said the removal of Fuel subsidy was rash, done with arrogance without weighing the implications.
“We looked around, we found that people around the president, people in the Villa, in the national assembly and corridors of power are not using public resources for the good of the public rather they’ve decided to convert public resources to their private pocket. This is what is killing the policy; we can still get it right if can do the right thing.

“Three years ago, Nigeria was described as the poverty capital of the world, but today the extent to which we have dived is threatening and this is just because of the carelessness of people who have taken over government but I believe that now that we outside government have started discussion and conversation on the process of rebuilding the country, we wish also that while we are doing this that people in government headed by the President will follow suit.

“There’s need for a national conversation that will bring all stakeholders on the table. That is part of the problem we are facing because once some people get elected, they see governance as business. And with that mentality we can’t go too far.”

In his submission, the National Secretary of CUPP, Chief Peter Ameh, decried the extent of poverty and insecurity in the land, while saying that those who have been elected have not acted in the best interest of Nigeria but rather have acted based on selfish reasons and at the end have pushed our people into abject and multidimensional poverty.

Chief Ameh said: “When you juxtapose the resources Nigeria has, Nigerians have no reason to be in this kind of situation. Nigeria has no reason for the common man not to have one meal a day, Nigeria has no reason not to have one of the highest record of out-of -school children in Africa.

“It is painful and disappointing to our founding fathers who fought for this democracy to come about, those who lost their lives . Unfortunately this democracy is being trampled upon by selfish leaders, leaders who are concerned about their pockets only, who are still using money meant for the citizens to buy exotic cars.

“Because of this multi-faceted criminality in our governance systems, we have now found ourselves in a situation where poverty and destruction of lives and property is the order of the day.

“The primary purpose of government is welfare and protection of the lives and propertyof the people. If we don’t stop this ownership and it’s my turn mentality in our electioneering process and allow the right people to win elections, we will continue to have this kind of problems.”

Also speaking, Dr. Yunusa Tanko submitted that democracy in Nigeria at the moment is in danger, stressing that there is a threat of annihilation, intimidation, and conspiracy against democracy, while stating that “as a collective, we stand firm in the defence of our democracy.