The governorship candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Lagos State in 2019, OwolabiSalis, has urged President Bola Tinubu to urgently tackle what he described as degenerating hardship in the country to save the poor from the excruciating hunger and poverty.
Salis, who expressed fear that the suffocating hardship could engender reaction that could undermine national peace, said the Tinubu administration should learn a lesson from the ‘Arab spring’, which swept ruthlessly through Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, noting that such reactions in history is due to hunger arising from unbearable cost of food and other basic needs of the masses.
“While it is true that the currently situation was not the making of Mr. President, rather an inherited burden, especially from the two successive past administrations, it still behoves him, in keeping with his electoral promises upon which he was given the popular mandate of presidency by progress-loving Nigerians, to seek urgent solutions to it.
“That is the very hallmark of leadership and the essential burden of responsibility that goes with it, rather than perennial fault-finding lamentations and excuses,” Salis said.
“In view of the acute scarce resources currently besetting your administration, I advise, as an effective cost-cutting measure and strategy, not to contend with many things that may not conduce to the exigency of the moment, given the prevailing paucity of funds.
“Rather, I urge you to concentrate and focus on a few, but highly strategic sectors like agriculture, security and power supply. Indeed, if it is only in these areas that your government is able to bequeath a lasting legacy, you will go down in history as one of the greatest Nigerian leaders.
The issue at stake should not be left to the Minister of Agriculture alone, let the Federal Executive Council embark on a collaborative synergy to brainstorm vigorously on emergency save-our-soul measures. It is crucial, critical and urgent in the drive at agricultural self-sufficiency,” he advised.
On the high level of insecurity, the politician described the situation as unprecedented, appalling and horrible, lamenting that even farmers are acutely scared to step into their farms for fears that kidnappers or terrorists might swoop on them.
“While they are denied access to their source of survival, the nation, especially the helpless poor, also suffer from the resultant drought of hunger and scarcity,” Salis, who is now based in United States, said in a statement.
According to him, the soaring number of criminals, who today, are irredeemably immersed in armed robbery, kidnapping, high fraud, human rituals and terrorism is caused by hardship occasioned by hunger.
“It is unfortunate that while the president, ministers, top government functionaries, lawmakers and the elite all have means of protecting themselves, the poor and the down-trodden are the ones who are at the receiving end of the attacks by cultists, terrorists, kidnappers and armed robbers.
“Even Abuja, the supposed headquarters of the federation, has today become so porous and vulnerable more than ever before, as criminals have besieged virtually every nook and cranny of the city,” the politician lamented.
