High Chief Owolabi Salis, a US-based lawyer and politician, has urged President Bola Tinubu to implement policies that address the suffering of the masses, particularly the poor.
In a goodwill message on June 12, Salis emphasised the need for agricultural self-sufficiency, citing Israel and China as examples.
He warned that failure to address food affordability and agricultural productivity could lead to inflation, sociopolitical unrest, and even revolution, referencing historical examples like the French Revolution and Ghana’s food crisis in the 1960s.
Salis urged the president to take urgent action to mitigate the hardship faced by Nigerians, emphasising that the celebration of June 12 would be meaningless without tangible efforts to improve the lives of the people.
“Mr President sir, if I might go two steps backwards, as it cannot be too often emphasized, the Late Tai Solarin of blessed memory, visited China sometime in the late 70s. Writing on his experience in his regular weekly column then in the Nigerian Tribune, the renowned social critic and educationist could not but express a pleasant shock that the cheapest thing to come by in terms of easy affordability was food, despite the almost explosive human population,” said the lawyer-politician popularly known as Oba Mekunu (King of the poor in Lagos and New York).
“Also remember that not long ago, Ukraine a war-torn country for that matter exported 25000 tons of wheat as a token gesture to assist in easing the prevailing food crisis in our country. Mr President, this should be enough food for thought.
“Let’s brace up to avoid the looming spectre of drought to forestall uncontrollable socio-political unrest. Remember that it was the near state of starvation that hit the Ghanaian populace in the late 60s, that sent most of its citizens trooping into Nigeria, in quest of greener pastures, just as it also ignited the process that eventually led to a series of coups until the arrival of Jerry Rawlings. Also, remember that it was the soaring cost of bread that eventually culminated in the French Revolution,” Salis remarked.
“Our dearly esteemed excellency sir, quite a couple of leaders in other countries had successfully gone through the teething phase of sociopolitical buffering which our dear nation is currently passing through, and in the process succeeded in etching their names in
Gold in the Eternal Hall Of Fame,” he added.
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