Buhari should focus more on security, economy and food in 2022 – Ihua

The Executive Director, Africa Polling Institute (API), Professor Bell Ihua, has called on the federal government to focus more on security, economy and food production in 2022. He made this submission when he spoke with journalists about the state of the nation on Tuesday. “I believe there are some sectors government should focus its attention […]

The Executive Director, Africa Polling Institute (API), Professor Bell Ihua, has called on the federal government to focus more on security, economy and food production in 2022.

He made this submission when he spoke with journalists about the state of the nation on Tuesday.

“I believe there are some sectors government should focus its attention on. The first is security.

“Only a few days ago, we learnt of bandits attacking communities in Zamfara and killing over 200 innocent unarmed citizens. It should be unheard of in the 21st century.

“It appears human life no longer means anything to us, that people can be slaughtered at will.

“One of the core responsibilities of government is security, and it is worrisome that we are still getting these sorts of stories in the news.

“Citizens need the government and security forces to step up their efforts in the area of providing security to citizens,” Prof Ihua said.

He also called for the revamping of the economy, stressing that year 2021 was a tough year for citizens, especially those in the lower rung of the social class.

“I say this because I travelled across the country and interviewed citizens in every single state I visited. I even led a national poverty profile survey and personally interacted with poor citizens.

“The poverty and unemployment rates are still pretty high, and citizens would like to see government policies that would alleviate widespread poverty and bolster the economy to create more jobs.

“We have a bulging youth population, with about 35 percent or a third of whom are unemployed and too many graduates fighting for too few jobs.
“This is a recipe for chaos, and we saw a bit of this during the October 2020 #EndSARS protests.

“We must be thinking of how to create jobs for our unemployed young people,” the Don added.

He also charged the government to focus its attention on food security, adding that the just-concluded festive season witnessed a drastic spike in the cost of food items across the county, despite the low disposable income of citizens.

“Although this is not surprising, as we had seen this coming from the results and findings of our past polls and surveys.

“I have also listened to anecdotes from citizens on the field, and they told me that a lot of farmers could not maximize the planting season due to insecurity or what is often referred to as farmers-herders or bandit crises.

“In fact, it should simply be called ‘attacks on farmers’, because in most cases, the farmers are the ones being attacked by the criminal herders and bandits.

“Please get my point right. I’m not saying that all herders are bad. What I’m simply saying is that there are criminal elements amongst them who make a vocation of attacking farmers to ravage their farms or steal from them,” Prof Ihua added.