Salihu Lukman, the former National Vice Chairman, Northwest, of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has expressed that President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ appears to be swiftly transforming into ‘renewed anger.’
Lukman, in response to the recent protests in Minna and Kano concerning the escalating cost of living, characterized the situation as a wake-up call for the Federal government.
He criticized Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, for trying to distort reality by attributing the protests to opposition sponsorship, even in areas traditionally supportive of the party.
The ex-APC Vice Chair said instead of blaming some imaginary opposition parties, the APC leadership and government should simply take responsibility.
“If the truth must be told, there is hunger in the land! As a committed member of APC, it is very depressing that this is happening under the leadership of our party.
“Even more depressing was the statement issued by Mr. Felix Morka, our National Publicity Secretary, alleging that opposition parties are behind the protests.
“For Mr. Morka to issue such a very dishonest statement points to only one thing – that the leadership of our party has completely lost it and at this rate their political utility value is zero. This clearly suggests that even the old pretenses about being progressive have been thrown to the dogs,” he added.
According to him, the protests, coming less than a year into the President Bola Tinubu administration, call for urgent response by the government.
He said that such a response must as a matter of necessity address existing realities whereby prices of goods and services, especially food items, are astronomically going up, almost on hourly basis.
