Hardship: SAN urges President Tinubu to reduce cost of governance in executive, legislature

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By Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Ben Uzuegbu, has asked President Bola Tinubu to reduce the cost of governance both in the Executive and Legislature arms.

Speaking in an exclusive interview in Onitsha, Chief Uzuegbu frowned at a situation President Tinubu would ask Nigerian citizens to tighten their belt when in actual sense his presidency, the National Assembly and other bureaucratics were spending our scarce money without considering that the country is in a tight corner.

He said: “It is really sad that the president is asking to be provided with another Presidential jet. What he ought to be doing now is to sell off the other presidential jets and use the money to cater for the poor citizens”.

He warned the president and other political leaders in the country to take a cue from what is happening in Kenja and make amend by providing quality and selfless services to the people.

“In Kenya and other countries, people are rising. They are beginning to ask for their rights and if you continue to surpress them,it is inevitable that someday, sometime, they will ignore all your instruments of coercion and get to the street” said the Senior Advocate.

He continued: “If 10million people are marching to State House, you can only kill 2000 or 3000, the others will move and do what they want to do. I do not know why our leaders do not know that there is danger in the corner, that there is very threat to peace by their conducts and leadership”.

He warned that with these Nigerian restive youth roaming the streets, it would only be just one thing that would happen and the whole place would explode, saying that Nigerian leaders still have opportunity to make amend and show good leadership.

“I do not agree with the economics of Tinubu. There is no way fuel would jump to almost N1000 per a litre and you know it a basic commodity which will affect all the corners of the economy. Look at the inflation, it has now turned to hyper” said Chief Uzuegbu who is the Deputy Chancellor of Diocese on the Niger, Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion.

He said the scarcity of everything in the country and the hyperinflation were attributable to the bad leadership in the country, arguing that it was not enough to say that subsidy has gone without putting measures on the ground to cushion the effect before the announcement.

Uzuegbu said: “Now you have said it and it has brought the economy to its knees and hardship to the people, you are responsible for the plight people are going through.

Chief Uzuegbu said he was not against subsidy removal but it should be systematic and gradual in a manner it would not harm the people so badly as it is currently doing.

He said that Tinubu didn’t stop at removing the subsidy without providing any plan to cushion its effect but went ahead to float our currency, which is massive devaluation of naira, emphasizing that there should be other measures to absorb the effect of these harsh policies he introduced.