A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba, has warned that what he described as hunger riot might soon break out in Nigeria, calling on the Federal Government to act fast. Agbakoba disclosed this, yesterday, while addressing newsmen in his office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
According to him, the majority of Nigerians could not put food on their tables due to extreme poverty.
This, he said, occurred despite the nation’s enormous oil and gas resources which, according to him, have been hijacked by foreigners.
Agbakoba maintained that Nigeria as a nation should avoid a situation where the masses would be pushed to the point of taking to the streets as a result of hunger. He noted that hungry people could resort to entering people’s houses and shops in broad daylight to cart away food items.
“Hunger riot can occur anytime in Nigeria,” Agbakoba said, advising Tinubu to restructure his cabinet and cut the cost of governance.
“President Tinubu needs to dismantle the cabinet. Having over 40 ministers is too large. We don’t need more than 20 ministries,” he said.
The legal practitioner advised Tinubu to scrap some government agencies and expand the tax net, alleging that some of the multinational oil companies are evading taxes.
“Don’t increase taxes, just expand the tax net and go after defaulting IOCs,” he said. It is evident that Nigerians are finding it more difficult to feed themselves, as food inflation rose to 40.66 per cent in May.
The cost of food rose by 61 per cent from 25.25 per cent in June 2023 to 40.66 per cent in May 2024, highlighting a steady rise in the cost of living, according to an analysis of the latest Consumer Price Index and Inflation report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The CPI measures the average change over time in the prices of goods and services consumed by people for day-to-day living. The NBS disclosed that headline inflation moved by 0.26 per cent to 33.95 per cent from 33.69 per cent recorded in April.
The report noted that the inflation rate climbed to a 28-year high since March 1996 on higher food and transport prices.
Consequently, Agbakoba said urgent actions must be taken to avert the looming hunger riot.
