- By Halimah Olamide
Amidst cries of increasing poverty, the Labour Party on Tuesday told President Bola Tinubu that he was not elected intooffice to increase poverty.
The opposition party said there is an unbearable level of hardship pushing citizens into very hard choices.
The party in a statement released Tuesday evening, asked Tinubu to “uphold the constitution you swore to protect.”
It added that the leadership of the Labour Party was disappointed but not surprised by the comments made by “President Ahmed Bola Tinubu about the excruciating poverty his administration’s policies have unleashed on Nigerians since he took office over a year ago.”
The party described as “disheartening” hearing Mr. “President mock his fellow citizens by saying Nigerians are not the only ones facing poverty.”
The party went further, “Assuming but not conceding that what he said is true, Nigerians who are at the receiving end of his harsh economic policies don’t need to be reminded about the pain and hunger they have been forced to live with by the very people who put them in that situation in the first place.
“May be this administration needs to be reminded that it was elected to reduce if not eliminate poverty, hunger and disease but what we have seen is an obsession with opulence.
“We are yet to get over the billions appropriated for the renovation of the President and Vice President’s lodges, now we hear they want new jets to join the Presidential fleet.”
LP said Nigerian schools and health institutions are on their knees, adding that the same government claims it cannot afford to pay public servants a living wage but has enough to make itself comfortable at the expense of the suffering masses.
“Mr. President, we implore you to uphold the constitution you swore to protect. The constitution says the security and welfare of the populace shall be the primary purpose of the existence of your government. Enough is this mockery,” LP concluded
The poverty rate in Nigeria according to available data is estimated to have reached 38.9% in 2023, with an estimated 87 million Nigerians living below the poverty line.