From Dan Amasingha, Minna

As Nigerians grapple with the current economic hardship, Former Military Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar has joined those calling on the Federal Government to take a second look at its policies to ameliorate the suffering in the Country.

The Former Military leader who midwifed the fourth Republic said the suffering in the land was getting out of control.

He stated this while playing host to the Abdullahi Jabi led Niger State chapter of the Campaign for Democracy who paid him a congratulatory visit at his Hilltop mansion in Minna.

“The hardship in the land is getting out of control”

“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, the hike in school fees for the children and the lack of funds in everybody’s pocket is making life difficult for everybody”.

Abdulsalami, who was responding to the cry of citizens to prevail on President Bola Tinubu to find a solution to the hunger in the land.

He declared that “We will continue to encourage the government to introduce measures to soften the hardship” adding that “the federal states and local governments should see how they can cushion this economic hardship”.

The former military Head of State said he belongs to a forum that had made recommendations to the federal government on the way out for the economic hardship in the land.

“I would like to intimate to you that in some of the proposals we have given to the government on another platform, (He did not mention the platform) that giving Palliatives is not the answer” to the high prices of food and other items in the country.

“There is need for government to flood and saturate the communities with food, let them (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 it” he submitted.

On the planned #Endbadgovernance protest slated for 1st of October he appealed to Nigerians to ” For God sake when you demonstrate do it peacefully” recalling that in the last demonstration “We saw unnecessary, uncalled for carnage, theft and criminalities” adding that: ” 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”

To the Government General Abubakar said it (Govt) should listen to the demonstrators stressing that “You cannot beat a child and prevent it from crying”

Abdullahi Jabi had said that they were in his residence to rejoice with him on the celebration of his birthday and 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 programmes especially in the area of mobilization of Nigerians for active participation in governance.

The Activist also drew the attention of the Former Military leader to the prevailing hunger in the land and urged him to help prevail on the federal government to solve the problem.