Stampedes: Hunger, Desperation Pushing Nigerians To Death – Ex-LP Chieftain
“They did not die in stampedes because they were poor. Poverty exists in every country. They died in a stampede because they were desperately hungry”
A legal practitioner and a former chieftain of the Labour Party (LP) Kenneth Okonkwo has attributed the recent spate of stampedes in the country to desperation and hunger.
Scores of persons died and others were wounded in Anambra and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during food distribution events on Saturday, throwing the nation into mourning.
Though many including President Bola Tinubu had attributed the stampedes to poor organisation and indiscipline, Okonkwo has pinned it on desperation to get food.
“This president shifted all the responsibility to the organizers, people who wanted to help people who are hungry. Let me tell you: this stampede happened in the east. It happened in the west. It happened in the north. That means it’s now a general thing that Nigerians from all sectors are hungry and things are hard,” Okonkwo said on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“They did not die in stampedes because they were poor. Poverty exists in every country. They died in a stampede because they were desperately hungry. In other words, they know that if they don’t have that food, they don’t even have anything to fall back in their house, and that is why they had to struggle for N5,000 and grains of rice. The worth of life in Tinubu’s government is now about N5,000 and about [some] grains of rice.”
Days after the stampedes, Tinubu in a media chat rated his government well in the governance of the country. He defended his administration’s policies including the removal of fuel subsidy, insisting they were necessary steps to getting Nigeria working.
Okonkwo, however, faulted Tinubu’s claims about his government, saying the president cannot rate himself.
“The worst statement the president made during his first Presidential Media Chat is scoring himself ‘excellent’,” the legal practitioner said, claiming Tinubu has done the “worst job by any president since independence”. Read More
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