Frontline Igbo think tank, Alaigbo Development Foundation, ADF, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for not showing empathy to Nigerians who are suffering from the consequences of the economic policies of his administration.
ADF equally blamed the South East Governors Forum for frustrating an attempt to form a regional security outfit, to tackle the frightening insecurity in Igboland.
Its National President and former Vice Chancellor of Imo State University, IMSU, Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie, who spoke with journalists in Enugu at the weekend, frowned at the insensitivity of the Tinubu administration to the current unprecedented hardship faced by Nigerians.
Fielding questions from journalists after a meeting of the ADF executive with members of the Central Working Committee, Board of Trustees and founders of the organisation, the former national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, wondered why President Tinubu should spend millions of dollars to buy a new presidential jet at a time that Nigerians are dying of hunger.
According to the ADF helmsman, President Tinubu does not care about the plight of suffering Nigerians because he claimed that he bought his way into the presidency.
Awuzie said: “How can he buy a new presidential jet when the people are dying of hunger? How can you as the president buy a new car for almost one billion naira when your people are suffering?
“When the people protested against hunger, the response was to buy a new presidential jet. It does not show empathy for the people of Nigeria. This is the ugly situation we have found ourselves.”
Commenting on the frightening wave of insecurity in Igboland, Awuzie said ADF is greatly disappointed with the South East Governors Forum, which frustrated an attempt to establish a security outfit in the region.
According to him, rather than support the establishment of a security outfit for Igboland, which they fought for, South East Governors under the leadership of the then Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, for selfish political reasons, preferred the community policing idea of the federal government.
“We were involved in the attempt to articulate our own security strategy, after the South West established their Amotekun Corps. Umahi’s brother was made the Chairman of the Security Committee, but he (Dave) never funded it.
“We were waiting for the inauguration of our own security outfit to police Igboland when Umahi suddenly said that the governors had accepted community policing. We were disappointed. Where has the community policing taken us? Nowhere.”
On the way forward, Awuzie said the battle for ADF at the moment is to make the people in the South-East talk about democracy and get them more concerned and involved in politics and governance in Igboland.
He said they are seeking a refined, transparent and credible electoral process, adding that when office holders know that they were elected by their people, they will work for them.
