Main opposition parties, Labour Party (PDP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the rising food prices causing hardships in the country.
The skyrocketed prices which some sections of Nigerians couldn’t withstand again resulted in protests in Kano and Niger State.
The protesters are seeking the Federal Government’s intervention in ameliorating their pains and also mitigating food costs.
In Niger state, a group of women blocked the ever-busy Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu Roundabout and called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to address the problem of ‘hunger in the land.’
Attempts by security operatives to quell the protest by firing tear gas canisters into the crowd and making some arrests were rebuffed by the mob.
While the APC on Tuesday accused opposition parties in the country of orchestrating the protests that took place simultaneously in Kano and Niger States on Monday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the opposition side tackled the ruling party, mentioning that it is politising the prevailing economic hardship in the Country.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of APC, Felix Morka, in Abuja on Tuesday, the ruling party accused opposition parties of being the brain behind the protests, which it claimed were not mere coincidence.
Morka added that it was a desperate move to portray the APC-led administration as underperforming.
The statement read, “The protests in Minna and Kano on Monday were the manifestation of this devious and unpatriotic plot. That the protests happened simultaneously in both cities is not coincidental. It bears the bold stamp of an orchestrated and coordinated effort to instigate unrest and undermine the government.
“This mercenary opposition tactic is a clear and present threat to public peace and national security.
“While we recognise the right of citizens to engage in peaceful protest, we urge our good people to be vigilant and not lend themselves to the treacherous attempt by the opposition to promote social strife by its incendiary rhetoric and manipulative plots.
“The President Bola Tinubu-led administration is solidly committed to doing everything in its power to mitigate the transient pains of critically important reforms that are crucial to economic recovery and sustainable prosperity for all Nigerians.
“It behooves us as good citizens of our beloved country to stand fast with our government in this noble stride. In due time, these policy reforms will yield an enduring beneficial transformation of the material conditions of life in the country.
“We implore Nigerians to shun the guile and unpatriotic attempt by opposition elements to destabiliSe the country for their own base and parochial political gains.”
Responding, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Obiora Ifoh, said, “The APC-led government is aloof and doesn’t understand the mood of the nation. They are still living in highfalutin estates for not understanding that virtually everything in Nigeria has gone up. They need not look at where to anchor their frustration. It is all out there unless they have markets different from the ones Nigerians use.
“It is not about the opposition parties orchestrating protests against the government. The work of the opposition is to remind the Federal Government that it is derailing and that a hungry man is an angry man. How can they be living in luxury while the nation is burning?
“There is anger when a man can no longer feed his wife and the family. You can’t expect such a man to laugh. We (the opposition) are only asking them to live up to expectations. When they were sworn in in May last year, they said a whole lot of things they promised to do. Nine months down the line, they have not done any and Nigerians are bearing the brunt.
“The food storage is empty. Even the farmers producing don’t have facilities to store when people refuse to buy. That is why we are having a food crisis. A bag of rice now costs N70,000 and you are still calling out opposition. The opposition are also Nigerians and have the right to speak when things are not going well.”
The PDP in response accused President Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government of allegedly politicising Nigerians’ protests against the current economic hardship and worsening insecurity in the country.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, described APC’s action as insensitive.
“The action of the APC in threatening Nigerians for exercising their democratic and Constitutional right to protest in the face of misrule, agonising poverty, hunger, killings, and other harrowing experiences under the Tinubu administration shows that the APC is insensitive and relishes the life-discounting situation in the country,” he said.
He said the approach by the APC, instead of listening to the people, is not only offensive but akin to pushing Nigerians to the wall and daring them to do their worst.
The statement read in part: “It is an assault on the sensibility of the people that rather than providing answers to how the Tinubu-led APC government in a space of nine months, turned the nation’s economy upside down leading to terrifying food scarcity and catastrophic high cost of living, the APC is seeking to label and clamp down on the suffering masses.
“The APC is insensitive to the fact that because of its policies more than 104 million citizens have sunk deeper into poverty; Nigerians can no longer afford their daily meals with families now going to bed on empty stomachs as poverty rate soars to over 46 percent.
“Any government that has an idea of macro-economic policy management ought to have recognised that the suffocating policies of abrupt increase in the pump price of petroleum products, high cost of electricity and arbitrary floating of the Naira as executed by the Tinubu administration without due considerations, would have excruciating consequences to the economy as being witnessed today.
“These thoughtless policies by President Tinubu and the APC are responsible for the crippling of the productive sector with a 28 percent inflation rate, crashing of the Naira from N167 to over N1,500 to a Dollar, closure of millions of businesses and mass exodus of international companies from Nigeria resulting to a distressing 41 percent unemployment rate and unbearable pressure on millions of families across the country.
“Is it not provocative that in the last eight years and nine months, instead of deploying the nation’s resources for the improvement of critical infrastructure and the productive sectors, Nigerians have witnessed massive looting of over N20 trillion by APC leaders and its officials in government through direct pillaging of government vaults, budget padding, contract inflation, oil subsidy scam, palliative racketeering and phony programs which have no benefit and consequence to the lives of the citizens?
“Moreover, the APC and the Tinubu administration have remained insensitive to the mass killings, kidnapping, and other acts of terrorism ravaging the country without proffering any concrete action plan and policies to address this multifarious consuming carnage.
“Since President Tinubu took office on May 29, 2023, no fewer than 5,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists emboldened by the laidback attitude and body language of Mr. President who has failed to show seriousness on issues of security or empathy to victims either by words or action.
“It is sad that in all of these, President Tinubu is missing in action as he holidays in France at the expense of the Nigerian treasury.
“The APC must understand and come to terms with the fact that there is frustration in the land because of the suffocating economic and social policies; laidback attitude to security and massive corruption in the Tinubu administration,” he said.