In a statement released through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, the former vice president said the hardship across the country was pushing millions of poor Nigerians to the brink, without any clear indication that the government had concrete solutions.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Monday raised the alarm over the deepening hunger and poverty ravaging Nigerians under the President Bola Tinubu-led government.
Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, accused President Tinubu’s administration of failing to confront the worsening hunger crisis.
In a statement released through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, the former vice president said the hardship across the country was pushing millions of poor Nigerians to the brink, without any clear indication that the government had concrete 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 the Tinubu 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 noted that Nigeria’s worsening situation should be seen as a moment for sober reflection, warning that economic hardship has often triggered social unrest in the past.
Atiku further emphasised that reforms are meant to serve the people, not the other way around, insisting that the current administration’s policies must carry 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.