Peter Obi, Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has expressed deep concern over the tragic incident at the Zonal Office of the Nigerian Customs Service in Yaba, Lagos.
In a statement posted on X, Obi addressed the recent stampede that resulted in the loss of lives as Nigerians sought to purchase discounted 25kg bags of rice.
Obi highlighted the distressing levels of hardship, hunger, and starvation prevalent in the country, emphasizing that the national economy is facing one of its most challenging periods.
He noted that the population classified as multi-dimensionally poor has increased significantly, surpassing 80% of the population.
He criticized the government’s allocation of resources, stating that significant amounts have been spent on unnecessary projects while attention to the living conditions of ordinary citizens has been lacking.
Part of the statement read:
”Our food inflation rate is at an all-time high, at over 35 per cent. Similarly, unemployment is galloping, and for a predominantly youthful population, this scenario is dire and frighteningly dangerous.
”For the first time in our peacetime history, stark, undisguised hunger has become a national epidemic, with hundreds of thousands of our people driven into open protests over food scarcity and unaffordability. The hunger protests have united our people across ethnicity, language, region, faith, and location.
”Most distressing is that in all our adversity, our leaders have resorted to spending stupendous amounts of resources on wasteful items like ordering expensive renovations of offices and residences that are already in luxurious conditions.
”We have seen our government spend more money on car parks for politicians than for the running of half of our teaching hospitals. In all this, there has been scanty attention to the living conditions of the ordinary people they were elected to care for.
”The huge amounts of borrowed resources that should have been channeled into production, especially food production, to guarantee an abundant supply of food in the nation, were rather consumed on inanities, rather than invested.
”Today, we are one big nation united by hunger and starvation, to the point of dying to make ends meet.”
