Minna, Nigeria – Former head of state, Retired Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, has described the current hardship in the country as unbearable, saying that the people are groaning and getting out of control.
Abubakar made this known in his residence on Tuesday in Minna, when he received the leadership of the Campaign for Democracy and Human Rights, led by Alhaji Abdullahi Jabi, who paid him a visit following his 82nd birthday, celebrated on June 13, 2024.
Abubakar said “Everybody is crying of this hardship and it seems to be getting out of control, people cannot afford three square meals any longer.
“The issue of transportation is another serious issue, hike in fuel, hike in school fees for the children and lack of funds in everybody’s pocket is making life difficult for all ”
The former military Head of State urged leaders to encourage the three tiers of government to come up with measures that would ameliorate the sufferings of the people.
“We will continue to encourage government to introduce measures to soften the hardship. The Federal, State and Local Governments should see how they can cushion this economic hardship,” he said.
Abubakar said that he belongs to a forum that had made recommendations to the federal government on the way out of the economic hardship in the land.
He said: I will like to intimate you that in some of the proposals we have given to government on another platform, we recommended that giving palliatives is not the answer to the high prices of food and other items in the country.
“There is need for government to flood and saturate the communities with food; let the government buy food and sell it at low prices to the people, so that people will try to buy some of these food items depending on their pockets and income.
“We have passed these recommendations to government with a high hope that they will implement it,” he said.
On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest, slated for 1st of October, Abubakar appealed to Nigerians to demonstrate peacefully.
“For God’s sake when you demonstrate do it peacefully, in the last demonstration we saw unnecessary carnage, theft and criminalities.
“Instead of demonstrating peacefully, people went about looting even private houses, private individuals suffered in the hands of the demonstrators.
“If there is going to demonstration, let us know this is why we are demonstrating let us not inflict hardship on fellow Nigerians,” he pleaded with those planning the demonstrations.
He urged government to listen to the demonstrators and other well-meaning Nigerians.
“You cannot beat a child and prevent him from crying,” he said.
Earlier, Jabi appealed to Abubakar to prevail on President Bola Tinubu to find a solution to the hunger in the country.
He said they were in his residence to rejoice with him on the celebration of his birthday and prayed for long life and good health for him.
