During a conversation with reporters at the National Assembly complex in Abuja on Wednesday, Ali Ndume, the Senate Chief Whip, expressed that President Bola Tinubu is unaware of the deep discontent and widespread hunger experienced by Nigerians.
Ndume suggested that President Tinubu is secluded in the Presidential Villa, receiving misinformation and protected from well-intentioned Nigerians who could provide him with honest insights.
In response to a resolution by the Senate, which called on the federal government to tackle the prevalent hunger in the country or face public outrage, Ndume expressed his opinion. Ndume, who had co-sponsored a motion titled “Urgent Need to address food insecurity and market exploitation of consumables in Nigeria,” along with Senator Sunday Karimi, Chairman of the Committee on Senate Services, made his statement on Tuesday.
According to the senator, not enough has been done recently to address the security issues in the country, which poses a continuous threat to food security.
Ndume stated ,“Mr President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the villa. He has been fenced off and caged. So many of us won’t go through the backdoor to engage him.
“Now, they have stopped him from talking and he doesn’t have public affairs managers, except that his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who writes press statements.
“Nigerians are getting very, very angry. The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity and it needs to do something urgently. We don’t have food reserve.
“There is unavailability of food. Food crisis is the worst crisis that any nation can encounter. If we add that to security crisis, it will be severe.”
Ndume further noted, “The president should wake up, it seems he isn’t in the picture of what is happening because he has been caged off.
“He has been fenced off by plutocrats. He should open his doors and meet those who will tell him the truth. Unfortunately, the people who will tell him the truth won’t struggle to meet him.
“I am very worried not only for the president himself, but myself,” he added.
He expressed disappointment in stakeholders’ lack of action against herders in the country, and stated that the presence of herders has worsened the issue of food scarcity.
