By George Onmonya Daniel
In mosques all over Nigeria, Islamic religious leaders are crying about hunger in the land. Several of these religious leaders had videos online complaining during sermon to appeal to the president or government to do something fast to ameliorate the suffering of the masses. There may be a little politics here and there by some of these religious leaders to take advantage of the siuation and tell their congregation what they want to hear, but it is clear that the fuel subsidy removal by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has sent the prices of goods and services skyrocketing beyond the reach of common Nigerians.
People who were ok are now struggling and those who depend on the ‘oks’ are now starving. The federal government quickly budgetted some amounts for palliative. The whole idea is for something to be done to provide succour to the very poor. How do you identify the very poor is the problem in Nigeria? The fact is that almost 50% of Nigerians, both rural and urban dwellers need this assistant with the way things are going. Things are pretty difficult for a lot of people.
Does the federal government and state government understand the situation? It doesn’t seem like they understand this whole issue of palliative. Who is getting what? How do you know who is getting what? Nigeria does not seem to have any record and even if there is record, politicians and their friends have the reputation of hijacking these types of projects for the benefit of their own tribal people, religious groups or some other local interest that nothong to do with the people.
As the effects of fuel subsidy removal continues, Nigerians continue to cry over it. But then Nigerians have a way of getting use to these things and moving ahead. Nigerian Labour Union tried to force government to change their stands bt striking, but even at that they have no succeeded. With the banditry terrorism that has continued to plague the country, we would continue to hear stories of people dying of hunger. There is one of a woman who fed her children salt water as there was no food. They were reported on social media to have died.
At this period, Nigerians really needs help. A lot of people need this help. It is beyond just the poorest in the country.
