A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Olisa Agbakoba, has warned that a hunger riot might soon break out in Nigeria.
Agbakoba, while speaking with journalists on Tuesday in his office in Ikoyi, Lagos, called on the Federal Government to act fast.
According to him, most Nigerians could not afford food 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.
He added that urgent action must be taken to avert the looming hunger riot.
According to an analysis of the latest Consumer Price Index and Inflation (CPI) report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 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.
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.
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