Stampede: NANS Tasks Federal Gov’t On Policy To Tame Hunger

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) over the weekend, appealed to Preside Bola Tinubu to urgently find solution to the hunger-induced stampede that is currently ravaging the nation.

NANS particularly want the Tinubu-led administration to evolve a curative solution to the deteriorating economic situation in the country, which it blamed for “national embarrassment” being experienced while scrambling for a share of palliatives and eventually stampede.

The students body in a statement on Sunday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital and signed by the Clerk of the Senate, Abdul-Yekinn Odunayo, warned that failure to fix hunger may lead to more stampedes while scampering for free food.

With particular mentioning of the stampedes in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital; that if the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and Anambra State, where scores of lives were lost, particularly the children, Odunayo noted that hunger has become so endemic in the land, driving scores of Nigerians to their untimely death.

Describing the sad occurrences as “unfortunate and national disgrace”, he said the ugly situation would have been averted if the Federal Government had since addressed the parlour economic situation with its attendant poverty and hunger.

He pointed out further that Nigerians are hardworking people who rarely resort to scampering for freebies, insisting that hunger in the country is real requiring urgent steps before more innocent lives are lost.

Odunayo said it is the failure on the part of the government at all levels to allow the situation in the country to degenerate without any meaningful solutions to ameliorate the poverty confronting Nigerians.

While bemoaning what he described as “nonchalant and insensitive” disposition of the federal government to the plights of Nigerians, Odunayo said no amount of condolences and compensations can atone for the lives of the people lost during the stampede.

“Nigerians have never had it this so bad. The situation in the country is really tough and it should be a serious concern for a government that knows its onions. We are tired of excuses and palliatives that could not even reach the poor of the poor. If truly the government had empowered many Nigerians through various interventions, the situation wouldn’t have been this critical.

“We, hereby, implore the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Tinubu and state governments in the country, to wake up to their constitutional duties and give breadth to the already asphyxiated economy. Hunger is real and poverty is real.

“No region of the nation is immune to this hunger situation. Therefore, urgent measures must be taken to reverse this ugly trend, otherwise, the government should prepare for more hunger-induced fatal stampedes across the nation,” the statement added.