Current Hardship An Existential Threat – YPP

The Youth Progressive Party (YPP) has described the hardship experienced by Nigerians as an existential threat.

The party said it is saddened by the ongoing excruciating hardship occasioned by many years of insensitive, inept and visionless leadership of several decades that have put Nigerians in a precarious situation where fending for themselves and loved ones has become extremely difficult, painful and unbearable.

A statement issued by the YPP national publicity secretary, Comrade Egbeola Wale Martins, said the hasty  implementation of two strategic policies of fuel subsidy removal and floating of naira, which ought to have been properly analysed and implemented after the fulfillment certain conditions, have brought untold hardship and plunge millions of Nigerians into extreme poverty with their purchasing power completely eroded within nine months of the President Bola Tinubu led APC government.

“With Nigeria’s inflation rate now climbing to an unprecedented rate of 29.9% and the Naira almost now exchanging for N1700/$ with no end in sight, it is only a matter of time that Nigerians will be united by a common predicament that may lead to restiveness and if not properly handled could degenerate to a state of anarchy.

“While the government may want to dismiss the obvious in its characteristic manner, our leaders should be warned that this is not the usual suffering Nigerians are accustomed to as the current hardship has become an existential threat. Nigerians have now been stretched to their elastic limits and the resultant reactions if not well managed by our entitled leaders may spell doom.

“The governors who are petty tyrants in their own rights are more culpable than leadership at the centre. They have been responsible for the stunted developmental growth at the local level having corruptly frustrated the autonomy of local government areas, State Assemblies and judiciary in Nigeria,” the party said adding that the governors have refused to deliver the gains of democracy, which would have been more visible if they had allowed democracy to function by not imposing inept leadership through SIECs at the local government level, invested more in education, health, Agriculture at the grassroots and do more to create jobs and reduce poverty.

“The chicken has now come home to roost as the many years of impunity has finally caught up with us.

“While this is not the time to apportion blame, we however cannot forge a sustainable way forward without first reflecting on the actions of the past that have brought us to this sordid state. It is time for desperate measures through multi-stakeholders approach that would involve all leaders of thought, civil society organisations, political parties, media and well meaning patriotic Nigerians coming together to find a point of convergence built around a radical alteration of the current constitution that will decongest the exclusive list, reduce the cost of governance, make our electoral process more transparent and address the problem of resource control. In addition, there must be the political will to drive this process as the current structure cannot longer hold,” YPP said.

The party said further: “The time is now right to embrace the truth and stop living in self denial. To think that things will get better if we continue to do things the same way is only postponing the evil day and that day is closer than anticipated. The time for grandstanding and arrogance is over as the various policies of the current government have exacerbated rather than ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians.

“We are already in an emergency situation that requires the involvement of all stakeholders and if the government fails to heed our interventions, a mass action led by the Young Progressives Party will become inevitable,” the statement added.