The ongoing cost of living crisis in the country is stretching the coping capacity of most Nigerians to the very limit such that pockets of hunger protests and violence are beginning to give vent to people’s pent-up emotions. It Kano, Lagos, Niger and Oyo States, residents protested in the streets over food scarcity amidst hoarding by merchants, forcing the state governments to ban the moving of food produce to other states. Since then, there have been hunger protests in Edo, Katsina and Sokoto states.
Daily reports of escalating cost of food items and other essential commodities and services are rife. The Nigerian currency, the Naira, has continued to slide against major and even minor currencies, causing more hikes in the costs of goods essentially because Nigeria’s is an import-dependent economy.
The situation prompted the Nigeria Labour Congress to call workers out for a two-day street protest across all the states in the country to draw government’s attention to the difficulties its members are facing.
There is no denying that these are perilous times for most Nigerian households, and for businesses as well which have to contend with volatility in the fiscal environment. And that is why it is sad to see key persons in the legislative and executive arms of government living in denial and trading blames instead of trying to work out constructive means to resolve the main issues.
Recently, the Presidency tried to blame political opponents for the sad development. Vice President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu at a Public Wealth Management Conference in Abuja, declared that smugglers and politicians were the brains behind the attempt to pull the nation backward.
Similarly, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio drew flak from many Nigerians when he claimed that the hunger protests were not genuine but sponsored to embarrass the present administration. He went on to blame governors for not doing much to ease the people’s burden despite receiving an extra N30 billion in the last few months from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) outside their normal allocations from the federation account, to assist them in ameliorating the food situation. Strangely, the Senate president attributed the source of his information to “unverified reports.”
As a newspaper, we believe that the heads of the two major arms of government should not be making these kinds of false and insensitive comments. It shows they are not in tune with the realities of the citizens’ daily existence. It will be unfortunate, in our view, if they mean to be understood that the acute hunger afflicting Nigerians is fake or contrived. Or that those faced with starvation need any prodding to show their anger.
Perhaps the Senate President needs to educate the rest of us if indeed he meant to say that the locals who raided the truckload of foodstuff in Katsina and Suleja in Niger State out of desperation were goaded to do that. Or that the hundreds besieging a truck in Lagos for subsidized loaves of bread were acting a script. On his part, the Vice President must not look elsewhere for reactions to the poor state of the economy under the almost nine years of All Progressives Congress (APC) administrations in the country because that has nothing to do with political opponents. It also cannot be the fault of farmers who decided to export their goods to where they can get better prices. That cannot be described as economic sabotage.
In our opinion, Akpabio’s finger pointing at governors based on “unverified report” is unconscionable. As the number three man and head of the federal legislature, he can access any government information or data in Nigeria and should not rely on hearsay to speak about matters of such high importance.
The Vice chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde not only denied Akpabio’s claim but also upbraided him for speaking in a manner unbecoming of leaders. On their part, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors have also pointed accusing fingers at the President Bola Tinubu administration for the hard times plaguing the country.
The operatives of the federal government have tried to blame bureau de change (BDC) operators for the continuous fall in the value of the Naira, sending security agents to hound them in their places of operations, an action described by knowledgeable persons as leaving the substance and chasing shadows.
As a newspaper, we wish to say that there are enough blames to go round, but finger-pointing will not solve the nation’s present predicament. The utterances by these key actors in government give little hope that they are on top of the situation, so to speak. The country’s perilous stance, at this time, is so dire that all hands need to be on deck and pull in one direction to retrieve the country from the edge of a precipice. We are persuaded to posit that proffering actionable solutions is the way to go, not living in denial or trading blames.
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