The former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has challenged the Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga to travel to his home town of Ijebu Ode without security personnel around him and shout ‘up Tinubu’ in a public space.
Eze threw the challenge to the presidential aide while cautioning the ruling party and by extension, the President, not to see every rational criticism from well-meaning Nigerians as politically driven.
He insisted that Tinubu’s administration has plunged the country’s economy into a debilitating state, with untold hardship ravaging over 70 percent of Nigeria’s population, and with no solution yet in sight.
“The truth of the matter is that Tinubu started on a bad footing right from the day of his ill-fated inauguration,” he said.
“The bandwagon effects of the hyper-inflation and inhuman policies of his administration are tormenting Nigerians on a daily basis, with no respite in sight.”
This was reaction to the response of the Presidency to the recent statement by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, suggestive of hunger revolution in Nigeria, in view of the current economic situation in the country.
Atiku Abubakar, had decried the high level of hunger ravaging poor Nigerians under the present administration, which he said President Tinubu seems unable to resolve.
The former Vice President recalled how poverty and hunger had caused revolutions in the Arab world, as well as France and Russia, insisting that ‘no manifest signs that this government is capable of addressing the grim issue of severe hunger staring the poor in the face” after two years in power.
Rattled by the warning of Atiku, Onanuga, in a statement released on Monday, dismissed Atiku’s claims as ‘grossly misleading’ and ‘out of touch with the positive developments currently unfolding in the country.’
In a statement on Tuesday, Chief Eze reminded Onanuga that the fake lifestyle around the corridors of power will certainly end someday and he will return to the larger Nigerian space.
“I don’t blame Onanuga for his response. If he doesn’t defend Tinubu and propagate falsehoods in defence of this administration’s ineptitude, misguided and clueless government, are the dead Nigerians who exited this world due to hunger, the ones to rise in his defence,” Eze queried.
“Though, Bayo is a Yoruba man, I dare him to travel to his hometown of Ijebu Ode, without security and shout, ‘up Tinubu! three times’.
“An educated Nigerian understands what propaganda and false narratives are; but a hungry poor man in the village doesn’t and is always angry,” Eze reasoned, insisting that attacking Atiku was needless and pointless.
Eze submitted that the President’s hangers-on, kitchen cabinet and foot soldiers could do well by advising Tinubu to strive harder and warm himself into the hearts of Nigerians, and not to attack, deride and rely on propaganda to insult critics of this administration.
To prove Atiku wrong, Eze said he expected Tinubu and his so called economic team to go back to the drawing board and devise strategic, result and people-oriented policies that will cushion the hydra-headed devastating negative effects of bad economy dealing with Nigerians.
