Hardship: Why S-East won’t join protests — Umahi

Former Ebonyi Governor and Minister of Works, Dave Umahi yesterday, said the people of the southeast have no reason to join other regions of the country to protest against the rising cost of living in the country.

The minister spoke in his Uburu hometown, Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi State while interacting with journalists.

He said that the high cost of living in the country was the cumulative effect of past administrations that President Tinubu has started solving through various policies and programmes.

The Minister said that the Tinubu administration favoured the southeast greatly through the appointment of sons and daughters of the zone in positions of authority including appointing the first Minister of Works of southeast extraction.

Umahi explained that the administration has been doing many projects in the region and that with all these, the southeast has no moral justification to join those protesting against the President over the hardship in the country.

He called on the people of the zone not to be lured by any group or region and join protests against the President.

The Minister described the NLC protest last week as unhealthy and unreasonable and urged the people of the country to be patriotic.

“The present hunger that everybody is talking about, didn’t start today. It’s  a build- up to several factors. Before the past administration and present administration, we have been having a build-up of insecurity, we had farmers/herders clashes over several years at a long period.

“At a time, I was the chairman of the NEC committee on resolving farmers/herders clashes. So, I went through several states especially the Northern states settling the farmers/herders clashes and it yielded several fruits.

“That problem dealt a lot of blow to food production. The issue of kidnapping, and the issue of insecurity, prevented farmers from going to their farms because here, we are talking about hunger.

“And so, you expect the administration of President Tinubu to fix all those things within nine months, it’s not possible.”