The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has lamented that some policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government are responsible for the deteriorating standard of living, inflation and unemployment in Nigeria.
The ACF stance was revealed after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Kaduna on Tuesday.
The forum noted that times continued to be tough and challenging for average citizens whom it said were daily confronted with crises of inflation, unemployment, rapid deterioration in standard of living coupled with incidents of insurgency, terrorism and banditry.
In a communique issued and signed by the National Spokesman of the Forum, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the group lamented that the problems had remained dire, acute and chronic in some places, especially in Northern Nigeria.
Part of the communique read, “As it has severally reiterated in recent public outings, ACF calls for urgent action and definitive attention, by government at all levels, to confront rapid decline in living conditions of citizens.
“The addition of new taxes and levies is becoming increasingly burdensome, too heavy to bear for ordinary Nigerians. The need for a roll out of public policy programmes and projects aimed at addressing low purchasing power challenges is clearly indicated.
“On the national front and specifically applicable to the Northern states, NEC notes that the times continue to be tough and challenging for the average citizen who is daily confronted with runaway inflation, unemployment, rapid deterioration in standards of living in the face of incidents of insurgency, terrorism and banditry problems that have remained dire, acute (or even chronic in some places in the North in particular.
“The immediate causes of the problems have been policies put in place by government over the past months, including but not confined to removal of subsidies from the prices of petroleum products, floating of the Naira, and astronomical hike in the cost of poorly supplied electricity, increasing tariffs and taxes against the seemingly insensitive profligacy in spendings by public officials, to list a few.
“ACF acknowledges the federal, state and, to a little extent, local governments have been making efforts to tackle the problems identified above. However, overall, it is undeniable, perhaps due to the quantum and widening dimension of the problems, that public policy response to the problems remains weak and ineffective at best.
“ACF calls on citizens to rally around government and offer prayers for God Almighty’s intervention in our various tribulations such as will translate into a new, prosperous Nigeria where justice, equity, love, righteousness and hope emerge to replace the current despair and hopelessness.
“To inspire the spirit of needed sacrifices by citizens, ACF calls on public functionaries to shun profligacy and recklessness in spending of public funds.
“As always, ACF unequivocally supports Nigeria’s security agents in their determined efforts to rid the country of criminality, insecurity and instability and pray that they very soon enough prevail over insurgents, terrorists and bandits. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
