On Monday, September 15th, former President Atiku Abubakar issued a statement warning of possible unrest or at best a revolution in Nigeria due to what he called hunger and starvation ravaging the country.
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, alleged that the administration of President Bola Tinubu had failed to address the hunger crisis.
Atiku in a statement by his media aide , Paul Ibe, claimed that the hardship in the country was pushing the poor to the brink, and that there was no clear evidence that the present government had solutions to the hunger crisis.
According to him, Nigerians may be pushed to the wall with a possibility of embarking on protests reminiscent of the EBDSARS violent protests of 2020.
It was shocking that a former Vice President and a supposed elder statesman should talk about a possible revolution in Nigeria. It is clear that the main motivation behind that poor statement of Atiku was the politics of 2027 presidential election. But a former Vice President of any country should put national interest above partisan considerations.
His claim that the administration of President Bola Tinubu wasn’t doing anything about food inflation is a lie from the pit of hell.
President Tinubu from the first day of his administration embarked on bold reforms to save the nation from total economic collapse. He announced the removal of fuel subsidy at Eagle Square, the venue of his inauguration . He also ended the corrupt multiple foreign exchange system . Atiku himself promised to end the fuel subsidy regime and discontinue the multiple foreign exchange system which almost bankrupted Nigeria, if elected president in 2023. Of course, it is no news that he lost that election to the incumbent President . I expected Atiku to praise President Tinubu for carrying out some of the things he planned to do if elected. The President deserves commendation rather than vilification from Atiku..
President Tinubu has never failed to acknowledge the hardship caused to the ordinary Nigerians by his bold reform initiatives.
He distributed palliatives to the vulnerable in society and introduced the Compressed Natural Gas( CNG) vehicles to ease the cost of transportation. 71 million vulnerable Nigerians have so far received a total of N336 billion under the Conditional Cash Transfer System.
The Federal Government also last year removed duty on imported food items to crash the prices of food. The effect of this move is already being felt with the prices of rice and other commodities crashing.
The Federal Government has also put in place policies to encourage local farmers to boost production.. It recently unveiled plans to attract a $3.14 b( three point one four billion dollars) agricultural investment portfolio under the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Hand-in-Hand Initiative, with focus on boosting food security and achieving food sovereignty.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said the initiative will focus on five priority value chains tomato, cassava, maize, dairy, and fisheries designed to eradicate poverty, end hunger, and build resilience in rural communities..
According to him, the investment pipeline is backed by $1.75 bn ( one point seven five billion dollars) in government funding and $1.39 bn (one point three nine billion dollars) in private sector commitments.
The fact that Atiku Abubakar issued his statement on the day the National Bureau of Statistics ( NBS) announced a further reduction in headline inflation shows that he is not in tune with current realities in Nigeria.
The Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, shared N2 trillion and N2.2 trillion for the months of July and August respectively to the three tiers of government . This is proof that President Tinubu’s reforms are already yielding results. The State Governors and local government chairmen are getting more money from the Federal Account to carry out people – oriented projects to make life easy for them. What is left now is the people themselves to prevail on their governors to use the money to do what is right them.
Atiku, who has serially contested the presidential election and lost still has the democratic right to take another shot at the exalted office in 2027. But he shouldn’t think that playing politics of hunger and inciting the people against the incumbent President will deliver victory to him.
Nigerians want to know his policy alternatives, not rhetoric..
*Owaikhena Osikhekha is a Public Affairs Analyst based in Lagos.
