A former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has advised President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress to find a lasting solution to the hardship in the country before it leads to violence.
He asked the president to take preventive measures against the general discontent in the country arising from poverty, high cost of living and the insecurity currently bedeviling the nation to avert an impending disaster.
Recall that thousands of citizens in Minna, the Niger State capital, had taken to the streets in protest against what they described as severe hunger and escalating cost of living in the country.
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, used two analogies by two famous persons to capture the near disaster waiting to happen if the Nigerian government does not take an immediate preemptive measure, according to ThisDay.
He recalled that during the era of PDP, there were cries of hardship arising from the increase of the pump price of fuel and the then serious insecurity from Boko Haram culminating in the abduction of Chibok girls in Yobe State.
“There was general outcry all over the country from the then opposition APC, organising protests against the PDP government. I vividly recall when Buhari, Tinubu, Bisi Akande, and other bigwigs of the APC poured out and filled the streets of Abuja chanting and condemning our government for allegedly failing to secure Nigeria and unleashing hardship on the citizens!
“That was when my good friend, Bishop Kukah presented his paper alerting of the impending danger should the government fail to take urgent action. He gave an analogy of American coal mining in the 18th century by taking a canary in a cage into the mining pit. The canary, according to Bishop Kukah, has a very weak respiratory system and can easily suffocate in low-oxygen areas.”
He stressed that women in Plateau State demonstrated because of the high cost of third favorite drink, ‘brukutu’ which helped them to forget about their problems temporarily.
He acknowledged that there is hunger in the land, with a warning that “It must not be allowed to reach a combustion point.”
