The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called out the administration of President Bola Tinubu over what it described as its insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians.
The Forum, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Muhammad-Baba, said the country is plagued with insecurity, especially in the northern part of the country, while the government is engaged in profligacy and reckless expenditures.
It added that despite the situation in the country, the Tinubu government and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are more obsessed with unprecedented early campaigns, defections and other maneuvers for re-election in 2027, than addressing the security challenges and other existential problems confronting the nation.
The ACF lamented that while the government has continually asked the citizens to endure and make sacrifices, public officials have been involved in reckless expenditures and wastage of funds.
The statement particularly pointed at the allegation of budget padding in the form of provision of streetlights at a staggering and unimaginable cost of over N260 million each in the 2025 budget, saying Nigerians should not be taken for granted.
ACF stated: “A most perverse illustration of reckless profligacy of public expenditure has been the revelation about insertions in the 2025 federal budget, for the provision of streetlights at a staggering and unimaginable costs of over N260 million each.
“That there has to date been no official denial of such crassly reckless and surreal insertions attests to the insensitivity of public officials and political representatives to the plight of ordinary Nigerians, whose living conditions continue to deteriorate all round.
“Going by precedent, such budgetary insertions are replicated in various ways at state level. As ACF observed a year ago, the existential challenges above are symptomatic of fundamental malaise in the political economy calling for urgent public policy attention.
“Delusional hubris and head-in-the-sand claims continue to characterise pronouncement by officials charged with responsibilities for security in contrast to cries of state governors on ground in locations. ‘’Such obsessions and claims only ignore or give blind eyes to possible mass disillusionment, despair, discontent, hopelessness and angst of the populace.
“That Nigerians continue to endure and could even celebrate occasions such as the Eid is a telling testament to their admirable resilience, which ought not to be taken for granted.’’