We can no longer pacify Nigerians over hunger, hardship, Sultan warns
• Don’t incite rebellion, APC govs warn PDP colleagues • Govt to distribute 42,000 metric tonnes of grains
NORTHERN traditional rulers, led by Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, have stated that with the level of hardship, poverty and insecurity in the country, they could no longer pacify the citizens, warning that the nation is sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
The Sultan expressed the concern yesterday during the sixth National Executive Committee meeting of the Northern Traditional Council in Kaduna.
As chairman of council, Abubakar told the Federal Government that monarchs, religious leaders, as well as governors have been pacifying the masses and the jobless youths from revolting against political authorities.
He added that it was getting to a level that the traditional rulers could no longer hold them back in the face of seeming failure to find solutions to their socio- economic plights.
His words: “And let’s not take it for granted; people are quiet, they are quiet for a reason, because people have been talking to them. We have been talking to them, we have been trying to tell them things will be okay, and they keep on believing. I pray to Almighty Allah that they will not one day wake up and say we no longer believe in you. That would be the biggest problem, because we can’t quieten these people as traditional, spiritual leaders and diplomats forever.”
MEANWHILE, the Progressive Governors Forum ( PGF) has warned their Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) counterparts against utterances and actions capable of inciting the masses against the Federal Government. In a statement yesterday in Abuja, its chairman and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma, said the economic and security challenges confronting the nation needed a collaborative approach for lasting solutions.
Reacting to the press briefing by PDP governors on Monday where they likened Nigeria to another Venezuela, Uzodimma stated that it was unpatriotic for those in leadership positions to play the ostrich when fully aware of what the President was doing to reverse the situation. He regretted that after cataloguing what they perceived as the nation’s myriad of problems, his PDP colleagues could not proffer a single solution. ALL of these came as the Federal Government, yesterday, said 42,000 tonnes of grain would be released from the reserves for onward distribution to Nigerians free of charge.
Government said the grains would be delivered to the neediest, adding that the National Emergency Management Agency ( NEMA) and the Department of State Services ( DSS) were working on modalities to provide the index and intelligence report on where the grains are most needed. Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, made the announcement at the maiden ministerial press briefing, organised by the Ministry of Information to showcase President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the nation’s agricultural sector. He attributed the current hunger in the land to low food production during the 2023 wet season farming. “Land mass is shrinking, and access to capital is also unavailable to farmers. Not that farmers did not cultivate, but the factor of demand and supply impacted on food, which was why a state of emergency was declared,” Kyari explained.
The minister decried double taxation and harassment faced by truck drivers transporting food items to different parts of the country.
He noted: “This is a great concern to us. We have seen not only inter- state double taxation, but also within the states, like in Kebbi, where a two- hour drive was being charged N600,000. Immediately I saw that, I reached out to the governor on the development. And he told me that at that point, he had already tackled the issue, and we have to make a national policy because of the food security aspect.”