General Abdulsalami Abubakar, President Bola Tinubu
By Victory Oghene
Former Military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, has said that ‘there is hunger in the land and Nigerians cannot afford three square meal’.
The retired General who handed over power to a democratically elected president in 1999 stated this on Tuesday at his residence in Minna, Niger State 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 and asked him to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find solution to the hunger in the land.
“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”. Abdulsalami said.
He added: “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.”
Thisday reports that Abdulsalami said 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, (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.
“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 it,” he said.
On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest slated for 1st of October, he appealed to Nigerians to maintain 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.”
To the government, General Abubakar said it should listen to the demonstrators, stressing that, “You cannot beat a child and prevent it from crying.”
