Recession: Nigerians are dying of poverty – MASSOB

MOVEMENT for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), Cross River State chapter has decried the high cost of living in the country, saying it has inflicted untold hardship on the people with many of them dying from hunger and starvation.

MASSOB who stated this in Calabar on Tuesday in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Comrade Okon Eyo Effiom, said due to the current economic hardship most Nigerians can no longer afford to buy basic food items and medical bills, a situation he said has led to the loss of lives.

The statement added that, ‘’with the state of things,  there  are clear indications that the Nigerian state cannot no longer take care of its people which accounts for the failed system which has led to the high cost of living.

‘Even at Christmas, a period characterized by celebration and merriment, many people could not afford to cook  rice  meal  for their families which is the basic staple during such time because of high level of poverty in the land”.

“’The standard of  living in the country has depreciated abysmally  in just one year where the cost of  basic items have quadrupled taking them beyond the reach of the ordinary person, and making them  to  easily succumb to diseases and death while some are unable to bear the situation which has resulted to them taking their own lives.

“Between last year, (2015) and this year, the cost of living  has risen over 500 per cent which is  way beyond the ordinary citizen which  accounts for the high death rate through disease and suicide amongst our people”.

‘’The state of affairs in the country gives credence to MASSOB’s  struggle for secession through peaceful means to leave the Nigerian state and build a nation of their own  based on the vision of Ralph Uwazurike.

“56 years after the Nigerian civil war, injustice is still being perpetrated against the people of Biafra especially the minorities as seen with the devastation of Odi in Rivers State the handing over of Bakassi to Cameroon by the Nigerian government.  We hereby call on President Mohammadu Buhari to let the people of Biafra go so that we can decide our fate and  build our nation not continue to languish in this unholy state called Nigeria.