The National leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), on Sunday, faulted the nationwide broadcast of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the ongoing protests against the economic hardship in the country, saying that the President was yet to address those issues that ignited the protest
Speaking in Abuja while reacting to the broadcast, the National Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam charged President Tinubu to address the multi-faceted problems ranging from insecurity, and economy to mass unemployment in practical ways which would have positive effects on the citizens generally
He pointed out that all the policies and others rolled out by President Tinubu towards addressing the problems were academic theories that would not in any way address the problems but rather compound them
Gabam who added that the Presidential broadcast also came rather too late said that the organizers of the protest gave enough reasonable notice for the government to put its acts together and for the President to have addressed the nation on the efforts being made to tackle the issues in contentions and not after the deal had been done and many lives lost and properties worth several billions of naira damaged
According to him, “the situation we find ourselves in this country is disheartening and laughable, I listened to the nationwide broadcast, our President has said nothing new or practical to address the problems at hand, all he said are academic work, theories, what we need are practical things and actions
“At the beginning, being the President, he ought to have addressed the citizens on the efforts being made to tackle the high cost of living in the land and probably announced the reduction in fuel prices by 50 per cent, and others programs behind the scenes, this alone would have gone a long way in reducing the tension in the country
“I know President Bola Tinubu very well, he means well for the people but the people around him to execute his laudable and people-oriented policies are not coordinated, they are disconnected from him, including the members of the National Assembly
“I have said it before, to adequately tackle the problems on the ground, the President needs to go to the National Assembly for a supplementary budget, we need skills acquisition centres nationwide to absorb our youths for them to acquire skills, the artisans we have on ground are quacks This can not take us to anywhere as a Nation
“The President promised to supply farmers with tractors, fertilizers, when is that is going to happen!? This farming season is gone already, is the government just waking up for such a provision to our farmers? People are already harvesting their farm produces now, the is time you can apply fertilizer to whatever crops you are farming, otherwise the fertilizer will destroy the crops,
“I bought a bag of fertilizer at N50,000 for my use I applied it on the crops and the crops are doing well This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture to procure this and others that farmers will need for farming at the appropriate time of the year to boost food production in the country”
The SDP National Chairman also faulted some unguarded utterances of some government officials and security agencies on issues of public national interest and called President Tinubu to look into the critical issue, saying that they were remarketing the administration at both local and international levels.
. TheWitness