Minister of Works, David Umahi, on Sunday, March 3, said the people of southwest have no reason to join other regions of the country to protest against President Bola Tinubu over the rising cost of living in the country.

Umahi said the President has resolved the incessant farmers/herders clashes in the zone that that contributed to the insecurity in the area and affected food production and caused hunger in the land during the clashes.

The minister stated this in his Uburu hometown, Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi state while interacting with journalists.

He noted that the high cost of living in the country was the cumulative effect of past administrations that President Tinubu has started solving through various policies and programs.

He averred that Tinubu administration favored southeast greatly through appointment of sons and daughters of the zone in positions of authority including appointing the first Minister of Works of southeast extraction.

Umahi explained that the administration has been doing many projects in the region and that with all these, southwest have no moral justification to join those protesting against the President over the hardship in the country.

He called on the people of the zone not to be lured by any group or region and join protest against the President.

The former governor of Ebonyi state described the NLC protest last week as unhealthy and unreasonable and urged the people of the country to be patriotic.

“The present hunger that everybody is talking about, didn’t start today. It’s a 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 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, 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 over night.

“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 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, South East will be completely safe and farmers can work. So, we can’t go and join anybody to protest”, he said.

The minister acknowledged that there is hunger and hardship in the country but that it will soon end.

“Yes, there is hunger, there is hardship but the darkest part of the morning is in the dawn. At the time, the morning will break, then, the dark is at its utmost level.

“The truth remains that all over the country, you can see insecurity coming down. So, as insecurity would be coming down, then farmers can go to work. At least we can feed ourselves so that the issue of hunger can go away.

“You have to look at the intension of Mr. President. Is he concerned about all those things? Yes! Success creates another problem but you have to compare to the two. So, there are a number of reforms he introduced that resulted to the few hardship that you are seeing but it’s an attempt to completely solve the hardship.

“So, Nigerians should know the good intension of Mr President. So, South East have no reason to join the protest.”, he submitted. (The Nation)

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