Bomba Dauda
In a press statement signed by Abraham Alberah Catoh, Public Relation Secretary of the Kaduna State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, described the All Progress Congress, APC, in the state as “a party without a human face.”
“We are all witnesses to the recent revolt by the youths of this country,” he said. He added, “a situation never before witnessed in this country. While it is true that sponsored thugs and hoodlums hijacked the otherwise peaceful protests, a lesson to inevitably learned is that the mood of the nation is clearly depicted in the action of the youths and by extension the hoodlums.
Only few days ago, Kaduna witnessed another unprecedented action by citizens of the state, akin to other states where unknown warehouses were broken into by hungry Kaduna residents and food items looted. Since the APC came on board in 2015, there is a clear and present danger of a government without a human face.
The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is clear on the basic cardinal of any government in power about security and welfare of citizens before all else.
In Kaduna state, this government has been beating its chest about some very lopsided, misplaced, overpriced and clownish road projects without a care about the welfare of its indigenes. Worthy of note is the unperturbed manner in which small businesses are being destroyed by this government in the name of urban renewal. Kaduna has large land expanses that can be developed without killing small businesses. It is correct that most cities around the world have inner cities and Kaduna in a third world country cannot claim to be an Island in that regard. It is like the people do not even exist. Poverty keeps soaring, as prices of food items keep skyrocketing everyday. Can a famished lion chase after a prey?
If the citizens are hungry, how can they walk on the few roads to work?
The political appointees in this government are pathetic because they dont have enough to take care of their needs not to talk of helping people from their constituencies. Only a handful of government officials have enough to cater for themselves and hoard away what they have cornered leaving the multitude of others in limbo.
When the Honorable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs claimed some months ago that she has fed virtually all the homes in Nigeria, many Nigerians came after her but no Governor came to her aid to prove the veracity of her claims. Little did we know that even Governor Nasir Elrufai and the APC government, in its usual wickedness has taken stock of unknown quantities of food items and loaded them into unmarked warehouses obviously in the dead of the night while the citizens go to bed hungry and famished. No official announcement was made about the items nor did the citizens know about an attempt to share it. What could be the motive behind this insensitive act? Did they plan to rebag the items and sell later or did they want to give to only friends and cronies at the detriment of the majority? These are questions begging for answers.
While the PDP sympathises with the people who loss their lives and the injured, as a result of the stampede in one the warehouses, the party condemns vehemently any act of lawless looting, our party rightly places the blame at the doorstep of the government for their secretive and suspicious actions, because if there were no clandestine ulterior motives, there would have been an official announcement about the items.
We therefore call on the Kaduna State Government to bring those who decided to hide these items in the midst of hunger and starvation to book.
We also advise the government to stick with the wise instruction of the constitution on security and welfare of citizens before anything else because this fire is just starting if things continue the way they are and nobody is safe.
