Former Military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has sounded the alarm over the worsening economic hardship in Nigeria, as he urged President Tinubu to act swiftly.
The former Head of State gave this honest view at his uphill residence in Minna on Tuesday when he received the leadership of the Campaign for Democracy and Human Rights led by Comrade Abdullahi Mohammed Jabi who paid him a birthday visit.
The human rights leaders during the visit had asked Abubakar to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find solution to the hunger in the land.
General Abdulsalami who took a critical look at the living conditions of majority of Nigerians concluded that ” The hardship in the land is getting out of control”
According to General Abdulsalami, “Everybody is crying of 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, the hike in school fees for the children and the lack of funds in everybody’s pocket is making life difficult for everybody, Nigerians are suffering”.
He nonetheless declared that “We will continue to encourage the government to introduce measures to soften the hardship” adding that ” the federal states and local governments should see how they can cushion this economic hardship”.
The former military Head of State however disclosed that he belongs to a forum that had made recommendations to the federal government on the way out for the economic hardship in the land.
“I will like to intimate you that in some of the proposals we have given to government on another platform, we indicated that giving Palliatives is not the answer to the high prices of food and other items in the country.
“There is need for government to flood and saturate the communities with food, let them (Government) buy food and sell it 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 them”, he added.
On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest slated for 1st of October, the Elder statesman appealed to Nigerians to shelve the idea, but nevertheless caution those behind it to be peaceful.
He pointed out that “For God sake when you demonstrate, do it peacefully”.
He recalled that in the last demonstration “We saw unnecessary, uncalled for carnage, theft and criminalities” adding that: ” people instead of demonstrating went about looting even private houses, private individuals suffered in the hands of the demonstrators.
He therefore cautioned them, saying “If at all we are going to demonstrate, let us know this is why we are demonstrating let us not inflict hardship on other fellow Nigerians”.
However General Abdulsalami has a message for the government, urging it (Government) to listen to the demonstrators stressing that “You cannot beat a child and prevent it from crying”.
Earlier the leader of the delegation Comrade Abdullahi Jabiindicated that they were in his residence to rejoice with him on the celebration of his birthday and prayed for 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 mobilization 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.
