Tnubu’s Renewed Hope Turning To Renewed Anger — APC Chieftain

…Says Party Dishonest In Blaming Opposition For Protests

ABUJA – Comrade Salihu Lukman, former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC), has raised concerns over the soaring prices of food items, which has sparked pro­tests in some states, pointing out that the Renewed Hope Agenda of the present govern­ment is turning bitter in the mouth of angry Nigerians.

The former Director Gener­al of Progressive Governors’ Forum also chided the spokes­man of the party, Felix Morka, for the lame attempt to blame the opposition parties for what is a spontaneous reaction of desperate Nigerians to the spiraling inflation currently ravaging the country.

Lukman recalled his warn­ing in August 2023, alerting the government on a disturbing policy action it took very early in the life of the administration that portends grave danger to the economy, the ripples that are presently felt in the econ­omy.

Quoting from an open let­ter, he penned to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu back in August, Lukman said, “I had cause to draw attention to some disturbing signals in an open letter to President Asi­waju Tinubu. Specifically, one of the disturbing signals was ‘the management of policy pro­cess’ based on which petroleum subsidy was withdrawn with­out clearly defined initiatives to guarantee local production.

“Related to that was the de­cision to float the exchange rate of the naira, which turned out to be isolated decision without the corresponding clearly de­fined economic policy. At the time, the caution was raised that the ‘consequence is that the naira is on a downward swing. Combined with rising cost of transport because of withdraw­al of subsidy the inflationary pressure on the economy is very high. As a result, living condition is getting worse. At this rate, poverty incidence will be terribly high, beyond any ra­tional expectations.’”

He insisted that the present chaos in the polity with regard to cost of food and other ser­vices are direct outcomes of decision of the president.

“These are predictable reali­ties triggered by conscious deci­sions taken by the government of President Asiwaju Tinubu”, he stressed and frowned at the party’s lame attempt to deflect the protests away as handi­works of the opposition parties.

“If the truth must be told, there is hunger in the land! As a committed member of the APC, it is very depressing that this is happening under the leadership of our party. Even more depressing was the state­ment issued by Mr. Felix Mor­ka, our National Publicity Sec­retary, alleging that opposition parties are behind the protests.

“For Mr. Morka to issue such a very dishonest state­ment points to only one thing that the leadership of our party have completely lost it and at this rate their political utility value is zero. This clearly sug­gests that even the old pretens­es about being progressive has been thrown to the dogs.

“How can we be talking of opposition sponsoring protests in the strongholds of the APC? Both Minna and Kano are strongholds of APC. In the case of Minna, Niger State, APC is the ruling party. Kano is the home state of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the APC National Chairman. To suggest that any opposition party could mobilise citizens to protests our government is already defeatist.

“The hard reality is that these protests are logical re­sponses to the realities facing Nigerians. If these realities continue unattended to, these protests will spread like bush fire across every part of the country within a very short period. No one should be de­ceived, these are justifiable protests, which tests the re­sponsiveness of our party, our leaders and above all our democracy. APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu may wish to ignore them at their own peril.”

“Good enough, report from the presidency suggests that the Federal Government is not ignoring the protests. The worrisome reality however is whether the government will decisively respond by coming out with a clearly defined eco­nomic policy, which should once and for all resolve the chal­lenge of subsidy withdrawal and floating the exchange rate.

“Withdrawal of subsidy and floating the naira against oth­er major currencies are very necessary decisions, which should have been integral part of broader economic plans. Withdrawing subsidy with­out addressing the question of what needs to be done to guarantee local production of petroleum products is bound to have the current mess of sky­rocketed increase in prices of petroleum products.

“Similarly, floating the nai­ra against other major curren­cies without taking the needed steps to reduce imports will also produce what we have today whereby the value of the naira is permanently on a downward slide.

“Once government is un­able to settle these issues, it is predictable that cost of living will continue to go up. Once prices of necessities are beyond the reach of ordinary Nigeri­ans, citizens will respond in the streets to compel our leaders to do the needful. This is the value of democracy. Instead of blam­ing some imaginary opposition parties, our party’s leadership and our government should simply take responsibility.

“It is quite heartbreaking that we appear to be almost back in the old politics that characterises military dicta­torship. Instead of calling meet­ings of organs of the party to initiate strategies of mobilising all governments controlled by the APC to coordinate respons­es to democratic demands of citizens, all we want to do is to criminalise the protests.

“We must appeal to our lead­ers, especially President Asiwa­ju Tinubu, not to submit to the temptation of criminalising the legitimate grievances of Ni­gerians. Under no circumstanc­es must our leaders imagine that because they are today’s rulers, unacceptably harsh liv­ing conditions caused by clear policy choices of our govern­ment should be tolerated.

“These were the same is­sues we rose against under the military and during the tenure of PDP between 1999 and 2015. Perhaps, if the truth must be told, if it were during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, many would rationalise it given his military background. But coming during the tenure of President Asiwaju Tinubu who was indisputably a committed democrat, makes it even more compelling for Nigerians to protest.

“Maybe it is only the loud protests of citizens that will compel President Asiwaju Tinubu to have more listening ears and open his government for citizens to engage it and influence its policy directions.

“As it is now, the renewed hope agenda of our party has been floated. Like the naira ex­change rate, Renewed Hope is being exchanged for Renewed Anger. The value is becoming more and more provocative to citizens. At this rate, all appeals for patience may be simple waste of time given the chal­lenge of survival.”