KINGSLEY EBERE
The coalition of human rights groups in Nigeria have raised alarm over the high rate of hardship and urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quickly address the suffering of the masses to avoid more suicide due to frustration.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the groups led by Comrade Prince Saviour Iche stated this during a press conference on the state of the nation held in Lagos State. Other members of the various rights groups were represented by Comrade Olusegun Adeeeko, Daniel Oguine, John Ezenwa, Mrs. Agnes Ohiero, Chris Emelifionwu among others.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, Comrade Iche stated that all is not well and Nigeria is heading towards anarchy as life has become hellish, brutish and needs quick intervention by the Government.
He noted that expectations were very high when Tinubu was declared the President despite INEC flaws during the election. He said that the promised Renewed Hope should not be considered as hopelessness because of the seeming harsh policies of the present administration, which has not helped the economy and social security as people are experiencing hardship on daily basis.
“Many families cannot feed and send their children to school, businesses are collapsing on daily basis even children are developing high blood pressure due to frustration because parents cannot take care of them” Iche said.
“We are here to express our displeasure on what is going on with Nigerians as the masses continue to experience suffering even more than it was in the previous administration. Nigerians are in a very tough situation and the Government that just came in promised a positive change for Nigerians. In the last 8 years, we had a President, Muhammadu Buhari, who promised to champion the country’s development but instead, the country was in disarray after his tenure ended.”
“This immediate past election, had different parties in contention for the Presidency and they all promised a change but only the APC candidate promised to continue where the previous president stopped. It is dissapointing to know that the previous government did nothing and put us in chaos like insecurity and inflation. We never had it that bad. Unfortunately, the human rights groupss were part of the people that campaigned against Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 for Muhammad Buhari to take power because we were convinced by his Agenda to bring change.”
“We fought for Buhari and in his first six months, he fought corruption by bringing the most corrupt politicians we know as Ministers. At the end of his 8 years tenure, he has left the country worse than it was with no significant improvement.”
“Citizens were impoverished and can’t afford basic amenities and infrastructures built by them through unnecessary foreign borrowings. Banditry was the order of the day and terrorists, who had spilled the blood of civillians and soldiers, were pardoned and brought back to the society.”
“Elections happened in February this year and APC won and now the Supreme Court of Nigeria gave verdict and declared Tyinubu as validly elected President.”
“Despite the citizens reservations, we are powerless to stand against the verdict. He immediately removed fuel subsidy without putting measures in place to ease the effect on citizens, promising and failing to meet up to the promises was the order of the day.”
“We sent letter to the Governor of Lagos State requesting him to ease the suffering of the masses in Lagos by subsidising food, transport, drugs in public hospitals and so on. They know what they are to do but the Government’s way of keeping people from challenging them is by keeping them impoverished through bad economy and inflation.”
“We are having problems with the democracy, governance and rule of law. The President appoints the INEC Chairman and the CJN, who in turn appoints the judges to work with him. The President puts people that will favour him and we therefore, have a compromised judiciary.”
“We are worried with the rate of inflation on food, fuel, gas and to pay rent and school fees in these present economy have become more difficult. It appears that the Government is doing absolutely nothing to ease the pain of Nigerians. We have cried, protested and even proferred solutions but the Government looks away while inflation overwhelms the masses.”
“There is no doubt that removing subsidy have plunged us into poverty. Dollar is very high now and since we are a consuming nation, it can never fall against the Naira. Youths after University and NYSC can’t get a job, companies are folding up because of high price of diesel. Grants and loans to entrepreneurs as claimed by the Government are all fallacy. The Government does not value Small businesses so how can the country grow? Small businesses are the largest employers of unskilled labour. We are still importing fuel because we don’t have refinery. We have so much resources including gold but cannot control its economy without the directive from the World Bank “
“The Government closed borders claiming arms were being trafficked to Nigeria for terrorists but terrorists still get arms and food prices has increased; we are suffering as a Nation. The borders should be opened. Our ports are so exorbitant that clearing goods has become so expensive. Rice importation was stopped so as to patronise home grown rice, unfortunately the rice has been made to full production yet and can’t meet up with the masses, which has made rice very expensive. It has now gotten worse bacause farmers are packing up due to insecurity.”
Demands:
1.President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has no more excuses as Supreme Court has given final verdict on the election, he should as matter of urgency, resolve the ugly situation we found ourselves.
2. All borders should be reopened and allow the inflow of goods to come in to reduce the cost of food in Nigeria.
3. Transportation issues should be addressed immediately because it contributes to the high cost of goods and services.
4. Establishment of small scale entrepreneurs to boost production and employment.
5. Giving licenses for export to boost the economy which will strengthen the Naira.