Former military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, recently took a critical look at the living condition of most Nigerians and concluded: “the hardship in the land is getting out of control”.

The former ruler said he belonged to a forum that had made recommendations to the federal government on the way out of the economic hardship in the land.

Abdulsalami spoke in Minna, the Niger State capital, when he received the leadership of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), led by Abdullahi Mohammed Jabi, who paid him a birthday visit and asked him to prevail on President Bola Tinubu to find a solution to the hunger in the land.

The former head of state lamented, “Everybody is crying of this hardship and it seems to be getting out of control. People cannot afford three square meals; the issue of transportation, the hike in fuel price, the hike in school fees for the children and the lack of funds in everybody’s pocket are making life difficult for everybody.”

“We will continue to encourage the government to introduce measures to soften the hardship. The federal, state, and local governments should see how they can cushion this economic hardship,”  Abdulsalami declared.

“I would like to inform you that in some of the proposals we have given to the government on another platform, giving palliatives is not the answer” to the high prices of food and other items in the country.

“There is a need for the government to flood and saturate the communities with food; let them (the government) buy food and sell it at lesser prices to the people so that people will try to buy some of these food items depending on their pockets/income. We have passed these recommendations to the government; we hope they will implement them,”  he revealed.

On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest slated for October 1, Abdulsalami appealed to Nigerians, “For God’s sake, when you demonstrate, do it peacefully. We saw unnecessary, uncalled for carnage, theft, and criminalities,”  he recalled.

He said, “People, instead of demonstrating, went about looting even private houses; private individuals suffered in the hands of the demonstrators.

“If at all we are going to demonstrate, let us know this is why we are demonstrating; let us not inflict hardship on fellow Nigerians.”

Abdulsalami also said the government should listen to the demonstrators, stressing, ”You cannot beat a child and prevent it from crying.”

Earlier, the leader of the delegation said they were at his former head of state’s residence to rejoice with him on his birthday. They prayed for long life and good health for him.

Jabi solicited the support of the former Nigerian leader for the implementation of some of its programs, especially in the area of mobilisation of Nigerians for active participation in governance.

He drew the attention of their host to the prevailing hunger in the land and urged him to help prevail on the federal government to solve the problem.

In the meantime, governors of the 36 states devised strategies for tackling the food insecurity in the country.

From the drought-prone states of the north to the floodplains of the south, state governments, in collaboration with federal authorities and international organisations, were making concerted efforts to combat hunger and improve agricultural productivity.

In a document signed by the Head of Information and Publications of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Halima Ahmed, in the north-west, known for its vast expanse of arable land, states like Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, and Sokoto focused on bolstering the production of staple crops, such as rice, millet, and sorghum.

Through the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which had since been suspended, thousands of smallholder farmers were said to have received financial support and inputs to scale up their production.

However, as Nigeria grapples with the challenge of food insecurity, governors of the 36 states have responded with unique strategies tailored to their specific agricultural strengths and vulnerabilities.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, urged Nigerians to take full advantage of the various intervention programs introduced by the federal government to overcome the current economic hardship.