Year 2021 calamitous, Buhari’s govt must review its actions for a better 2022 — Afenifere

Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has knocked the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari over its actions in the outgoing years which it said had fallen far short of expectations, urging the government on the need to change its “attitude for the coming Year 2022 not to be as calamitous as 2021.”

The pan-Yoruba group, while making the plea, said it goes without saying that the Year 2021 was terrific for Nigeria and Nigerians, adding that so worse was the situation now that a group from the Northern part of the country, where Buhari hailed from, was reported to advocate a return to the pre-2015 situation in the country.

National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Comrade Jare Ajayi, gave this position when contacted by Tribune Online, even as he quickly recalled President Buhari’s commitment “to bettering the lot of Nigerians” in his message to felicitate with them on the occasion of this year’s Christmas on December 25, 2021.

According to the group, the assurance given by Buhari that his administration remains resolute at ensuring that the standard of living of an average Nigerian is elevated “is a relevant template with which to assess the past six years of his administration and to project into what the remaining period to the end of his tenure in 2023 is likely to be,’ but quickly observed that despite the assurance the ‘standard of living of an average Nigerian’ was far better under the past administrations “than what it is today.”

“The standard of living of an average Nigerian was far better than what it is today. So worse is the situation now that a group from the Northern part of the country, home of the president, the Northern Concerned Group, was reported to advocate a return to the pre-2015 situation in the country!

“The actions of the government in the outgoing years have fallen far short of expectations. It goes without saying that the year 2021 was terrific for Nigeria and Nigerians. 

“Government need to change its attitude for the coming year 2022 not to be as calamitous,” Afenifere said.

The group, while noting that a popular Yoruba maxim “has it that it’s the incompetence and misdeeds of today’s rulers that makes us to be nostalgic of a former ruler or rulers,” pointedly declared that President Buhari’s “speeches, like his actions, do not seem to reflect a good grasp of the realities that average Nigerians are grappling with on a daily basis.”

“The COVID-19 vaccines the president enjoined us to take are not available just as it’s known that the low incidence of the pandemic in Nigeria was due more to providence than to governmental actions.

“The president also talked about ‘remarkable successes’ recorded on the security front. The number of lives that have been lost, number of communities that have been sacked, millions of people who have been turned into refugees in their own country during peace time and billions of naira that had been forcefully committed to the payment of ransoms to free kidnapped victims belie the declaration by the president,” it stated.

Afenifere, therefore, posited that it was difficult to be hopeful that the year 2022 would be any better much as the citizens prayed and hoped that this should not be so, giving the announcements and activities of the country’s rulers in recent years, which it said had been negatively at variance with the reality of the nation’s situation.

The pan-Yoruba organization, however, said it was duty bound for the umpteenth time to present the true picture of Nigerian situation to President Buhari and to nudge his government to be ‘pro-people’ rather than ‘anti-people,’ since it was his administration that was currently in the saddle, expressing the belief that there would be a dramatic turn around for the better in the way the country was being governed as there was always a turning point in human situations.

“But because what we have presently is still Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, we have no choice than to, for the umpteenth time, present the true picture of Nigerian situation to him and to nudge his government to be ‘pro-people’ rather than ‘anti-people.’

“Since there is always a turning point in human situations, it is expected that there will be a dramatic turn around for the better in the way Nigeria is being governed,” Afenifere said.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…

Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train

The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report.…