Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Monday, raised concern over the worsening hunger and poverty in the country, describing the situation as intolerable and a threat to national stability.
In a statement signed by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe and sighted by AFRIPOST on X (formerly Twitter), Atiku said the primary duty of government is to guarantee the welfare and security of its citizens, adding that Nigerians are “progressively wallowing in misery and poverty under the watch of the Tinubu-led APC administration.”
According to him, the deepening hardship is not only stripping the people of dignity but also fueling criminality across the country.
“The current situation does not give cause for cheers as it engenders an increasingly progressive propensity for criminalities in form of high-wire fraud, terrorism, kidnapping, cultism, drug addiction and ritual sacrifice, among others,” he said.
The former Vice President warned that history is replete with instances where hunger and unbearable living conditions triggered violent uprisings, noting the paradox of widespread poverty amid abundant national resources.
He recalled: “The most violent socio-political eruptions and revolutions all over the world had often been powered by pervasive hunger and unbearable material conditions – especially the paradox of squalor amidst plenty in our land.”
Atiku urged the government to reflect deeply on global lessons, citing the French Revolution, the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Arab Spring, which he noted began in Tunisia after a young man, overwhelmed by frustration, set himself ablaze.
“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,” he said.
The Waziri Adamawa faulted the APC administration for failing to show evidence of capacity to address hunger despite being two years in office.
“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 said.
Atiku maintained that reforms must be people-centred, stressing that Nigerians are the ones bearing the brunt of current policies.
“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.