ACF Warns Rising Poverty, Hardship Could Trigger Public Protests

The apex northern socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said Nigeria, and especially the Northern region retains the unenviable status of poverty capital of the world, where living challenges have become entrenched.

The forum warned that should hopelessness, despondency and other conditions continue to deteriorate, the political authorities risk the peoples’ wrath and protests.

ACF stated that all three geo-political regions in the North were facing daunting challenges which the forum described as deep with no solutions in sight.

The forum noted that North Central zone has been under siege as armed non-state actors continue to disturb the peace of the people in Benue, Niger, Plateau, Kogi and Kwara States.

According to ACF, states in the Northwest, the epicentre of banditry, have remained under the vice grip of bloodthirsty criminals euphemistically labelled bandits.

ACF said the Northeast zone still facing religious extremists who continue to carried out heinous attacks even on military outposts as recently recorded in Borno state.

In a Sallah message issued by ACF national publicity secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, on Thursday, the forum urged the people to remain patient and steadfast in prayers for a better Nigeria.

“Generalised dire economic hardships belie official claims about conditions getting better. Multidimensional poverty and associated forms of socioeconomic and political deprivations have remained the lot of an overwhelming proportion of citizens. Evidentially, Nigeria, and especially the Northern region retains the unenviable status of “poverty capital of the world,” where living challenges have become entrenched.

“All three geo-political regions in the North face daunting, as if to signal an inexorable slide into dystopia. The Northcentral zone has been under siege as armed non-state actors continue to disturb the peace of the people in Benue, Niger, Plateau, Kogi and Kwara states. States in the Northwest, the epicentre of banditry, have remained under the vice grip of bloodthirsty criminals euphemistically labelled “bandits” as if to perversely rationalise their dark criminal enterprise.”

The statement noted, “In the Northeast, religious extremists appear poised to resurface with their quixotic search for a putative utopia. Further illustrating Nigeria’s downward spiral, are the unprovoked heinous attacks by ragtag non-state actors on military outposts as recently recorded in Borno and Plateau states

“The existential cauldron of challenges is deep, wide, cascading and spiralling out of control. Adding to the challenges are outcries, from the so-called opposition parties and individuals, against extra-judicial arrests and prolonged, unconstitutional detention and other strongarm tactics, by the political authorities and their agencies, against widely accepted universal principles and practices of democracy
”

ACF added, “In short, the general situation of the people is of despair, hopelessness and despondency, such that the Ramadan fast as well as, coincidently, Lent, was observed attests to the peoples’ resilience and never-say-die spirits.

“Still, the political authorities must not take this situation for granted. Should conditions continue to deteriorate, the political authorities risk the peoples’ wrath and protests

“ACF believes that the Nigerian condition is not insurmountable. For the Forum, much can be achieved through the entrenchment of the principles of good governance in public policy formulation and implementation, in place of the current surreal obsession with political campaigns for re-election against in 2027.

“Finally, ACF calls for continuing unalloyed support for the security agents fight to decimate criminals and criminality in Nigeria,” the forum said.