Protests: Review your strangulating policies now, PDP tells, Tinubu-led APC Govt

…says life in Nigeria unbearable

By Tunde Opalana

As the protest against bad governance started on Thursday across the country, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged the President Bola Tinubu led- All Progressives Congress (APC) government to immediately review all its “anti-people policies that are asphyxiating life” in the country.

The party noted that the nationwide protest by Nigerians would not have come if the APC government had dropped its “arrogance, insensitivity” and show sincere commitment to the citizens by taking steps to address the current hardship occasioned by its ill-implemented polices.

In a statement Thursday by its spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, the party recalled that it had on several occasions offered advice on the state of the economy to the APC government, the most recent being the PDP’s statement on June 6, 2024 wherein it urged that “President Tinubu should listen to the heartbeat of Nigerians. There is hunger and destitution in the land. The reaction of a hungry people is better imagined! Mr. President, please act now”.

Sadly, the PDP said these counsels did not receive the expected consideration resulting in the current situation.

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The PDP in the statement said: “It is alarming that instead of engaging Nigerians and addressing their concerns, the APC allegedly recruited hoodlums to instigate violence so as to justify a clampdown and killing of innocent Nigerians.

“The APC is completely insensitive to the fact that more than 120 million Nigerians have become destitute and can no longer afford their daily meals and other basic necessities of life as poverty rate soars to over 40% because of the life-discounting policies of the APC administration.

“As stated by the PDP on several occasions, any people-oriented government ought to have been wary of the suffocating effect of the hasty and ill-implemented twin policies of abrupt increase in the price of petroleum products and arbitrary floating of the Naira without due cushioning measures to ensure the wellbeing of the people.

“The PDP restates that these thoughtless policies of the APC administration are responsible for the crippling of the productive sector with the crashing of the Naira to over N1,500 to a Dollar, fuel soaring to over N1,000 per liter, which in turn triggered high costs of goods and services with over 34% inflation rate, over 40% unemployment rate with the closure of millions of businesses and mass exodus of major multi-national companies from our country.”

The party lamented that the APC has plunged Nigeria into a humanitarian crisis where millions of citizens are literarily starving and dying of hunger.

“Sadly, today a bag of rice sells for over N85,000; a bag of beans goes for N150,000; a measure of garri now sells for N1,500 while a measure of cooking oil which sold for N1,200 now sells for N12,000 with prices of all food items increasing daily.

“More provocative is that while Nigerians are crying for food, the APC officials in government are busy looting the national treasury to fund their luxury appetite, including acquisition of luxury jets, expensive holidays abroad, renovation of official residential mansions and other profligacies, without regard to the feeling and the pains of majority of Nigerians.

“Also disturbing is the scandalous revelation that the APC administration is secretly paying a whopping N5.4 trillion as fuel subsidy for 2024 even after the President announced an end to fuel subsidy.

“What Nigerians expect at this time is for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to personally address the nation, announce major policy reviews and order investigation into the alleged looting of subsidy and palliative funds.”

It asked President Tinubu to also review all luxury items and purchases in the APC government and channel the resources for immediate intervention in the provision of food and other essential commodities to Nigerians.

The PDP called on Nigerians to remain peaceful and law-abiding in the pursuit of good governance in the country.