Hardship, hunger, cumulative effect of past governments — Umahi

The Minister for Works, David Umahi has called on Nigerians to be calm with the government of President Ahmed Tinubu stating that the present hunger affecting the country was caused by the past governments.

Umahi stated this in an interview with some Journalists at his country home Uburu on Sunday where he appealed to Nigerians to still give the present government time to address all the inherited issues affecting the country.

The minister also disclosed the reasons the South Easterners are not part of the agitations and protests against the government.

He then commended President Tinubu for tackling the farmers and herders clash in every part of the country.

His words “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 blow to food production. The issue of kidnapping, and 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 gotten to climax, you don’t expect to dissolve it overnight.

“If you check very well, especially in 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 now we 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 East will be completely safe and farmers can work. So, we can’t go and join anybody to protest.”

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