Former Military Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar on Tuesday in Minna Niger State took a critical look at the condition of living of Nigerians, concluding that: “The hardship in the land is getting out of control.“
He said: “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.”
General Abubakar made the remarks in his residence 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 visitors took the opportunity to ask Abubakar to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find solutions to the hunger in the land.
General Abubakar said: “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 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.
According to him: “I will like to intimate you that in some of the proposals we have given to government on another platform, (He did not mention the platform) that giving palliatives is not the answer to the high prices of food and other items in the country.”
He said, “There is a need for government to flood and saturate the communities with food; let them (governments) 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, and we hope they will implement it.”
On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest slated for 1st of October, he appealed to Nigerians to maintain the peace, adding, “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
“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.”
General Abubakar advised the 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 Jabi, said that they were at 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 had adverted 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.
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