Minister of Works, David Umahi, yesterday said the people of South East have no reason to join other regions of the country to protest against President Bola Tinubu over the prevailing hardship in the country.
Umahi said the president has resolved the incessant farmers/herders’ clashes, which contributed to the insecurity in the zone, and affected food production that caused hunger in the land during the clashes.
He spoke at his Uburu hometown in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, while interacting with newsmen.
Umahi noted that the hardship in the country was the cumulative effect of the actions and inactions of past administrations, which Tinubu has started solving through various policies and programmes.
He averred that the Tinubu-led administration favoured South East greatly through appointment of sons and daughters of the zone in positions of authority.
Umahi explained that the administration has been doing many projects in the region and with all these, the area has no moral justification to join those protesting against the president over the hardship in the country.
He urged the people of the zone not to be lured by any group or region to join the protest against the President.
The former Ebonyi State Governor described the Nigeria Labour Congress protest last week as unhealthy and unreasonable, and urged Nigerians to be patriotic.
“The present hunger that everybody is talking about didn’t start today. It’s built up to a number of factors. Before the past administration and present administration, we have been having a build up of insecurity. We had farmers/herders’ clashes over a number of years at a long period of time.
“At a time, I was the Chairman of the NEC Committee on resolving farmers/herders’ clashes. So, I went through a number of states, especially the Northern States, settling the farmers/herders’ clashes, and it yielded a number of fruits.
“That problem dealt a lot of blows to food production. The issue of kidnapping; 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. So, it’s a cumulative effect of the past like I have mentioned. We should be asking ourselves, how do we solve these problems and that’s what the President has started doing. When something has got to climax, you don’t expect to dissolve it overnight.
“If you check very well, especially in the South East, you will know that we no longer have incessant farmers/herders’ clashes. So, why should we join the protest when the president has solved our major problem? The problem we now have in the South East is self-inflicted, and that is the issue of unknown but known gunmen.
“So, if we are protesting, are we protesting against who? We are protesting against a president that has solved herders/farmers’ clashes. If you remove the issue of unknown gunmen, the South East will be completely safe and farmers can work. So, we can’t go and join anybody to protest,” he said.
The minister acknowledged that there is hunger and hardship in the country, but said that it would soon end.
“Yes, there is hunger, there is hardship, but the darkest part of the morning is in the dawn. At the time the morning will break, the dark is at its utmost level.
“The truth remains that all over the country, you can see insecurity coming down. So, as insecurity would be coming down, then farmers can go to work. At least, we can feed ourselves, so that the issue of hunger can go away.
“You have to look at the intention of Mr. President. Is he concerned about all those things? Yes! Success creates another problem, but you have to compare the two. So, there are a number of reforms he introduced that resulted in the few hardships that you are seeing, but it’s an attempt to completely solve the hardship.
“So, Nigerians should know the good intention of Mr. President,” he stated.
