Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Monday expressed concern over the level of hunger and poverty among Nigerians.
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party also alleged that the administration of President Bola Tinubu failed to address the hunger crisis.
In a statement by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, the former vice president, said the hardship in the country was pushing the poor to the brink, with no clear evidence that the government had solutions.
‘At this time, there are no manifest signs that this government is capable of addressing the grim issue of severe hunger staring the poor in the face after two years in power’, Atiku said.
He warned that unchecked poverty and hunger could fuel widespread unrest, recalling historic revolutions that were triggered by similar conditions.
‘The French Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Arab Spring in which a young man caught in the maelstrom of unbearable frustration set himself ablaze in a development which occasioned violent socio-political eruptions starting out from Tunisia to engulf the Middle-East and North Africa.
‘Back home here in Nigeria, it may not be out of place to argue that even the ‘ENDSARS’ protest was fuelled by the traumatising frustration of hunger and insensitivity on the part of the government.
‘Whatever reform President Tinubu’s government might claim to be undertaking, the point remains that food insecurity is a daily occurrence nationwide. There is no government worth its salt that does not place priority on the welfare and security of the people’.
He said the worsening situation in Nigeria should serve as an opportunity for reflection, stressing that economic hardship has historically been a spark for social upheaval.
Atiku stressed further that since reforms are made for citizens and not the other way round, the reforms of this administration should have a human face.
‘Whether the present powers accept it or not, the reality of our existence is that the poor are increasingly dying of hunger while the majority of the living poor exists at the mercy of the ill-advised policies of this government’, he added.
