Two days after protesters stormed the streets of Minna, Niger State capital, over the rising cost of living, another set of protesters have hit the streets of Suleja, still in Niger.
Suleja is just a few kilometres away from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
The protesters called on the President Bola Tinubu to end the hardship because they were suffering.
They wielded placards with inscriptions such as “Tinubu, Do Something Now!”; “Leadership Is All About Improving Lives”; “Nigerians Are Suffering”; “Stop The Hardship Now”, among others.
A group of women had blocked the Minna-Bida Road at the popular Kpakungu roundabout to express their grievances over the rising cost of food items.
People travelling to major cities in the South such as Lagos, Ibadan, among others, were held hostage for hours due to the protest, which started as early as 7am.
The women were later joined by men and youths who accuse governments of turning deaf ears to their plights.
Neither the thick smoke of the teargas and the sound of the gunshots fired by police operatives to disperse them nor the plea by the deputy governor of the state, Yakubu Garba, who went to the scene of the protest calmed the protesters.
They booed the government’s envoy, saying that they were tired.
A housewife, Aisha Jibrin, who led her fellow women to barricade the streets at Kpakungu roundabout, said: “We embarked on this protest because of the rising cost of living. The government is not doing anything for us. The government should pity us. Some of us woke up this morning without anything to eat.”
Another protester, Musulumi Mikaila, said the rising cost of living had caused many broken homes, adding that many husbands were becoming overstressed because their salaries could no longer cater for their families.
“We don’t have a stable power supply; we don’t have water; the cost of food items is high. Nothing is working in this country. We voted for this government with the hope that poor citizens would get relief from hardship, but things are getting worse day and night,” she said.
She said many people were in hospitals not to treat serious ailments but due to stress, high blood pressure and trauma arising from hardship and rising cost of living.
Another woman who simply identified herself as Mrs Asabe said they embarked on the protest because women bore the brunt of everything. The protesting women said social vices, especially prostitution are on the increase due to hardship that forced many husbands to divorce their wives.
One of the men who joined the protest, Ibrahim Gana, said a measure of rice was sold at N2,000 at Minna markets while maize was N1,000.
“The cost of living is too high. If you go to the market today and buy something, tomorrow you will just hear that the price has gone up,” he said.
Meanwhile, former National Vice Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the North West, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has asked President Bola Tinubu to ignore the mass protests over high cost of living at his peril.
In a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, Lukman, a former Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), warned that if the issues were not addressed, mass protests would engulf the entire country in no distant time.
He said, “As it is now, the renewed hope agenda of our party has been floated. Like the Naira exchange rate, Renewed Hope is being exchanged for Renewed Anger. The value is becoming more and more provocative to citizens.
“If the truth must be told, there is hunger in the land! As a committed member of APC, it is very depressing that this is happening under the leadership of our party. Even more depressing was the statement issued by Mr. Felix Morka, our National Publicity Secretary alleging that opposition parties are behind the protests.
“For Mr. Morka to issue such a very dishonest statement points to only one thing that the leadership of our party has completely lost it and at this rate their political utility value is zero. This clearly suggest that even the old pretence about being progressive has been thrown to the dogs.
“How can we be talking of opposition sponsoring protests in the strongholds of the APC? Both Minna and Kano are strong holds of APC. In the case of Minna, Niger State, APC is the ruling party. Kano is the home state of Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the APC National Chairman.
“To suggest that any opposition party could mobilise citizens to protests our government is already defeatist. The hard reality is that these protests are logical responses to the realities facing Nigerians.
“If these realities continue unattended to, these protests will spread like bush fire across every part of the country within a very short period. No one should be deceived, these are justifiable protests, which tests the responsiveness of our party, our leaders and above all our democracy. APC and President Asiwaju Tinubu may wish to ignore them at their own peril.”