South-East have no reason to join protests against economic hardship —Umahi

Minister of Works, David Umahi, says the people of the South-East region have no reason to join other regions in the country to protest against the hardship and rising cost of living.

Umahi, a former Governor of Ebonyi State, who made the assertion on Sunday while speaking to journalists at a function in his Uburu hometown, Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi, said the region had benefited immensely in terms of projects from the President Bola Tinubu-led administration and as such, had no grounds to protest.

The Minister argued that the high cost of living in the country should not be blamed on Tinubu as it was the cumulative effect of past administrations that the present government is doing everything possible to solve through various policies and programmes.

He explained that the Tinubu administration had favoured the South-East greatly through the appointment of sons and daughters of the zone in positions of authority, including himself.

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“The present hunger that everybody is talking about, didn’t start today. It’s a build- up to several factors. Before the past administration and present administration, we have been having a build-up of insecurity, we had farmers/herders clashes over several years at a long period,” he said.

“At the time, I was the chairman of the NEC committee on resolving farmers/herders clashes. So, I went through several states especially the Northern states settling the farmers/herders clashes and it yielded several fruits.

“That problem dealt a lot of blows to food production. The issue of kidnapping, and 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.”

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