An Igbo pressure group, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for not showing empathy to Nigerians who are suffering from the consequences of the economic policies of his administration.
The ADF equally blamed the South East Governors Forum for frustrating attempts to form a regional security outfit, to tackle insecurity in the geo-political zone.
The National President of ADF and former Vice Chancellor of Imo State University (IMSU), Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie, who spoke with journalists in Enugu, 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 the 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 were 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 to the protest 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 in.”
Commenting on the frightening wave of insecurity in Igboland, Awuzie said ADF was 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, the 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 all involved in the attempt to articulate our own security strategy, after the South West established their Amotekun Corps. The brother of Dave Umahi 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.”