President Tinubu last week aggravated the anger of Nigerians with the venomous speech he made regarding the hunger protests embarked upon by the citizens throughout the country.
Devastated by harsh economic conditions arising from Tinubu’s oppressive policies, Nigerians had embarked on the protests with the hope of forcing the government to institute reforms aimed at reducing poverty.
The protesters had demanded the cancellation of the fuel subsidy removal, reduction in pump prices of fuel, reduction in food prices, repairs of the country’s refineries, among others.
It was their belief that when these measures were taken, poverty, hardship and hunger in the country would reduce.
To their consternation, however, instead of addressing these demands, Tinubu came out with an irritating speech, warning the protesters to suspend the protest and directing the security agencies to continue to maintain peace- euphemism to deal with the protesters mercilessly.
The President in the speech complained that the protesters, during their first day of the protest on August 1st, committed mayhem in some states, including Kano, Borno and others, saying in some of the states, people died during the protests.
He advised the protesters to suspend the protests in place of dialogue, warning that as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he would not sit down and watch the country burn.
There was no where in the speech where he spoke of how he would reduce the hunger in the land through provision of food for the hungry masses.
As expected, the speech had raised more anger in Nigerians, who now feel that President Tinubu is insensitive to their suffering.
Some of them who spoke to our correspondent in an opinion poll described the speech as hollow, wicked and lacking in milk of human kindness.
According to them, the man does not care if hunger strikes Nigerians down, particularly the poor masses who had no tangible means of living.
“His children are living in opulence through money he acquired fraudulently from our commonwealth,” one of them said, adding that what the people were suffering does not concern them.
President Tinubu’s arrogance and nonchalance towards the hardship in the country is an invitation for Nigerians to engage in armed struggle to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of greedy politicians who have held the people to ransom for years,” another respondent said, stressing that time is coming when the masses will take up arms to chase the evil leaders away.
The protesters had therefore vowed to continue the protests until their demands were met. “We’ve been treated like slaves for long in this country, but we are now very determined to resist our oppressors” another protester said.
