Youth Activist and Executive Director, Centre for Safe Measures, Management and Leadership Development (CESAMLED), Dr. Tom FredFish has tackled a presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, for accusing Peter Obi of instigating the planned nationwide protest.
Onanuga had alleged that Obi and his supporters were behind the protest.
But Fredfish who is also a PDP chieftain in Akwa Ibom State, said the comment was not only uncharitable and uncalled for but an embarrassment to President Bola Tinubu himself.
He, therefore called for Adenuga’s sack before he “dishes out another error that is capable of plunging the country on fire”.
The lawyer said, “There is unanimity of agreement by every concerned Nigerian on the economic situation in the country which has left many Nigerians struggling to meet ends.
“Are the APC expecting Nigerians to keep quiet and languish in penury when the cost of living has skyrocketed with basic commodities such as food, fuel, and electricity increasing daily?”
“The United Nations (UN) in its latest forecast, noted that 82 million Nigerians, about 64 percent of the country’s population, might go hungry by 2030, advising the FG to make policies to tackle these threats. Added to this is other several Federal Government agencies making fearful remarks about the growing poverty rate in the country.
“The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said Nigeria’s food inflation rate hit a record high of 40.66 percent in May 2024, surpassing the previous month’s 40.53 increase.
“Cadre Harmonisé analysis, in it’s March 2024 release approximated that 4.8 million people in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states are experiencing severe food insecurity, the highest level in seven years. These state are projected to also join the protest according to a Northern group Arewa Youth Ambassador.
“Nothing has changed many weeks after those fearful predictions and Onanugu want Nigerians to keep quiet when the tendency for improvement is completely invincible.
“It is therefore irresponsible for Onanuga to call Nigerians who intend to register their displeasure over government policies and programmes and demand for good governance which is within their rights as citizens of the country anarchists.
“The hunger, poverty, and discrimination that is being experienced in all the geopolitical zones of the country are indiscriminate of religion, ethnicity, and language and so the playing of the ethic of card by Mr. Onanuga is unacceptable in this period where tempers are high and people are trying to survive,” Fredfish added.
Protest: Youth activist slams Onanuga, asks Tinubu to sack him