Dumebi Kachikwu, the former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), cautioned the opposition on Sunday, August 4, against inciting violence in the nation and in favour of letting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration carry out its mission.
He requested that instead of making disparaging remarks, the opposition propose answers to the nation’s challenges.
He urged people who were against the government to let the outcome of Tinubu’s administration be decided in the subsequent presidential election in 2027.
He called on hunger protestors to stop their demonstrations and public building vandalism.
Kachikwu bared his mind in a statement in Abuja.
He said: “What of those who lost elections but like President Trump won’t accept the result and move on? This is not a progressive attitude. We can’t burn down our country over elections that have been won and lost.
“The job of the opposition now is to oppose and propose but what we are doing is only opposing without providing any solutions to our problems. Watch any advanced democracy and see how the opposition behaves. They have their stand and solution on all issues, and they will debate you night and day but here all we want to do is abuse Tinubu without offering any concrete solutions. This is not leadership.
“Nigerians lost a golden opportunity by not insisting on credible debates. Joe Biden has pulled out of the race because a single debate spotlighted his deficiencies but here in Nigeria we don’t care. President Buhari fumbled in all the debates, but he won two elections. His government set us back three decades, yet we didn’t protest bad governance when he was President.
“We protested SARS arresting so-called Yahoo boys and our youths on trumped up charges. Who are we deceiving? For how long will we keep on being mediocre about our civic duties?
“If you hate Tinubu so much, then pressure the National Assembly to remove him or wait till the next elections but heating up the body polity for the last one year and attempting to remove a democratically elected government through the back door is no different from a coup.”
Kachikwu urged the hunger protestors to try for peace rather than robbing public resources and going on rampages.
He added: “We can’t continue killing ourselves. Our streets flow with the blood of the innocent. Over 19 were killed in this scam of a protest, all for what? No child of any politician or big man was killed. Just the poor, average Nigerian. Only their family members will cry and mourn for them quietly while those who have made billions from this scam laugh at the bank.
“We are witnessing unprecedented hardship right now. The poor can barely eat a meal in two days. Most of us can no longer afford the necessities. The population of the poor is increasing by the minute. We as leaders need to come to a table of equity, justice, and fairness to address the plight of the downtrodden immediately.
“It is not Tinubu’s problem alone and Tinubu must stop acting like he can do it all by himself. He must show leadership and reach out across party lines to get the best and the brightest to a solution roundtable. God himself reconciled all men to him through his son Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
“If God knows to reconcile us to him, who are you not to reconcile the aggrieved to you? (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) Our nation needs healing and for this to happen, all Nigerians must come to equity with clean hands and sincerity of purpose.
“We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches: sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches will leave on their own. My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us.”
He stated that Tinubu ought to reassess the government’s fuel subsidy strategy.
According to him, the scheme’s fraud was the main issue with the subsidy.
He requested that everyone who took advantage of the program be prosecuted by the government, regardless of their social standing.
He said: “Look at the vexatious issue of subsidy removal. Some sections of the media are now saying all the Presidential candidates agreed that the subsidy had to go. This is not true.
“God did not make a mistake by depositing oil in our land. The problem of subsidy was the fraud associated with the scheme. I said that we should prosecute all those who abused the scheme no matter how highly placed in society and at the same time rejig the scheme and make it fraud-proof. I also said we should suspend it for a few months while all this takes place.
“Why should over 200 million Nigerians suffer because of the crime of less than a thousand people? This doesn’t make sense. The President believes that with subsidy gone there is more money for capital projects, but he forgets that in a corrupt society like ours, a lot of that money will be looted. We are all also calling on Tinubu, the States and Local Governments have been getting much more money and they are closer to the people. What are they doing? We don’t want to hear the truth.”
