By Ifeizu Joe
Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, Senator Victor Umeh has said that those supporting the reelection of President Bola Tinubu cannot feel the pains of the people because they spend public funds.
Umeh in an interview with journalists at the weekend singled out the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, who has been full of praise for Tinubu and what he called growing economy under his administration.
Addressing Soludo’s claim that the economy is much healthier, Umeh said: “This is election time, so people will speak so glowingly of any positions they have taken. They say the taste of the pudding is in the eating. You can’t tell a blind man that there is salt in the food, he already knows.
“All these embellishments about the economy doing well, it is very hard to convince anyone that Nigeria is doing better today, because the cost of living has become unbearable. The citizens are groaning.
“It would have been a beautiful story if you said you are putting reforms and the economy is healthy and the people are feeling it and enjoying. The number of stroke patients will shock you if documented. People are dying everyday and they are not dying because things are good, they are dying because challenges are overwhelming them.”
He said Soludo cannot be blamed for his stand because he has the common purse of the people of Anambra State in his pocket and can not feel what Nigerians feel under Tinubu regime, which makes them so eager to want to vote him out.
“He is a governor and he has the resources of the state at his disposal, so he doesn’t know what the ordinary people are going through. People are going through hardship, petrol is N1,410 and diesel is almost N2,000. How can these things be sustained this way and you say the economy is doing well?
“A positive reform puts costs low. If for example when the president removed subsidy and all the savings made from that subsidy removal they make policies that can help us have refined products in Nigeria, that would have been fair. If they had set up a refinery with all the money they have borrowed, over $100billion, they would have put up a brand new refinery in three years and the product would be available and you won’t have to continue importing.
“The level where we are now, there is no hope that petroleum products will come down any day because there is nothing put in place to guarantee it would. The government is just confused. The other time, they announced N30 reduction and it was sold only in NNPC filling stations and was for just 30 days. What impact did that policy make? It was not meant to solve any problem,” Umeh said.
