By M. Peter – Jos
The menace of prevailing hunger in the country could be curbed if Nigerians irrespective of their positions in life could return to the farms, live in peace with one another and stop the killings in the country.
Those are the opinion of the Plateau state governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the last election, Senator Jeremiah Useni who stressed the incessant killings are creating fear and preventing people from going the farms.
Useni who spoke with journalists at his residence in Jos, cautioned citizens against stereotype saying political leaders are not inherently bad but the influence of bad advisers working with them could impact negatively on good governance and democratic practices.
According to him, “There is hunger but, I advise us to go to farm. No matter the profession we find ourselves, we should farm. The farm can even be behind our houses. We must not rely on salary alone. Hunger is not only in Nigeria, but a worldwide phenomenon. We must therefore do something to feed ourselves. We must stop fighting, as this has made people not to go to their farms. It is of note that hunger also makes people to steal.
“As a President, Buhari does not do everything by himself, he has advisers. If you have advisers and they advise you properly, you will do proper thing but when you have bad advisers, you will have problems. What am saying is that they are good and bad advisers.
“So if there is anything going wrong at all under the administration, it must be based on bad advisers and not that him as an individual will try to see that things are done badly. So, I think there is a mix up because some people do not understand what democracy is all about and only think it is all about lying to the people and not telling them the truth.
“I tell people that politics is not for people given to falsehood but sincere individuals who are desirous of helping the people and the society to solve their problems. Everybody tries to blame Mr. President for every wrongdoing going on but he is just but one man. He is not the Minister for Agriculture for instance or other ministries.
“In the judiciary for instance, when somebody is to be locked up or given just sentence but the people in charge decided to do a different thing, it means that anything can happen and we will continue to have problems. So I think everybody should be determined to do the right thing for good governance and our democracy to thrive in the country.”
Speaking on the 2023 Presidency, the former FCT Minister called for caution but stressed that whoever emerges would depend on the candidate the various political parties will present for the election.
