Protest: This Hunger Started A Long Time Ago – Fayose

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has observed that hunger has not stopped in Nigeria since former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan left office.

Fayose, who spoke recently on the food crisis in the country and the planned nationwide protest by some citizens, recalled that some Nigerians staged a demostration during Jonathan’s administration over hunger and other challenges faced by the country at the time.

The former Governor, however, expressed ‘shock’ that such protest never happened under the preceding administration led by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Recall that Buhari, a former military head of state from Katsina State in North-West Nigeria, was Nigeria’s democratically elected President from May 2015 to May 2023.

The Katsina-man handed over power to President Bola Tinubu, former Lagos governor from the South-West geopolitical zone.

Fayose, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, noted that Buhari was in power for eight years, and there was no hunger protest despite the hardship in the country at the time.

Naija News reports that Fayose said this while expressing displeasure with the planned nationwide protest tagged #EndBadGovernance against the President Bola Tinubu administration.

Fayose claimed the planned August hardship protest has political dimensions.

He said, “Hunger didn’t start one day. This hunger started a long time ago. That was why they had a rally at a time and said: ‘Jonathan must go’. (President Goodluck) Jonathan left. That hunger did not stop. Buhari came. I spoke to power. Buhari spent eight years; nobody said anything. I didn’t remember any rally.

“There is no government that is 100%,” he said, adding that the economic issues confronting Nigeria were from the past administrations.

“Nigeria is a very difficult country to govern. We all know that. If a man is to spend four years, give him a mid-term.

“The little they cannot be sufficient right now for anybody to say we must bring down the government. Because there must be a motive.”

Naija News, however, recalled that the Buhari administration witnessed significant protests, including the #EndSARS protest against police brutality, demonstrations by university lecturers, and pro-Labor rallies, among others.