TheCable

The Labour Party (LP) has asked President Bola Tinubu to seek help in addressing the high cost of living in the country before the situation gets out of hand. 

Protests broke out in Niger and Kano states this week, with residents blocking roads over food inflation and economic hardship.

Obiora Ifoh, LP national publicity secretary, in a statement on Monday, said it is “deeply concerned about the increasing cost of living in Nigeria and how millions of Nigerians are battling with the crisis of food shortage since the turn of the year”.

The LP said the federal government needs to take action to reduce the hardship being faced by Nigerians.

“It is either that the government is bereft of ideas on how to check this unfolding catastrophe or that it chose to continue to act as if it is still campaigning for office. This is no time for politics,” the statement reads.

“Our presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi has said it time and again that until we get the leadership question right, we will continue to grapple in the dark.

“He has always said we need to move away from a consumption dependent economy to a productive one in order to shore up our foreign exchange reserves and ultimately strengthen the Naira for the economic boom we desire.

“Mr. President and his team should just admit they’ve run out of ideas, they should ask for help because it is now apparent that no amount of propaganda can change the fact that more and more Nigerians are falling below the poverty line.

“Local and foreign companies are folding up and government appears at a loss as to what next to do other than ask us all to pray.

“The Federal Government needs to take action to reduce the hardship being faced by the poor Nigerians, and seek help because things are becoming unbearable for average Nigerians.

“This must be done immediately to stem the rising tide of discontentment.”