Press Release: NEW YEAR MESSAGE: FG MUST REDUCE THE SUFFERING OF THE POOR December 31st, 2007

As Nigeria enters year 2008, inflation is biting hard. Workers cannot feed their families. Less than 10% of the population can afford three square meals. 67.67% of Nigerians live below poverty line. The average Nigerian lives on less than $1. Our per capita income has not risen above $300. Many roads in Nigeria are death traps. Many languish in pain at home for fear of sky-rocket hospital bills. The resort to local herbs is increasing with its attendant threats.

 

Nigerian streets are filled with jobless graduates who roam day and night in search of jobs that are not really there. Many of those frustrated graduates are constrained to succumb to pressure by taking to crime. Nobody can rule out the possibility of the involvement of well-educated youths in the recent phenomenon of sophisticated robberies in banks. Corruption still remains the monster to fear in the land and the harsh and unjust treatment handed down to pensioneers has not helped matters. The Nigerian scenario paints a generally gloomy picture.

 

In view of the above frightening situation, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) calls on the Federal Government to evolve a welfare scheme for all unemployed Nigerians. Hungry people see God first in the form of bread. If it is true that we export more than 2.4 million barrels of oil per day, if it is also true that the price of oil has risen above $90 per barrel, government has a moral duty to feed the hungry and accommodate the homeless.

 

Qur’an 20 118-119 asserts that the Creator has provided enough for all to eat and accommodate themselves:

 

          There is therein enough provision for thee not to go hungry.

          Neither should you be naked. Nor to suffer from thirst, nor

from the heat of the sun.

 

MURIC calls on the Federal Government to lend a human face to its capitalist ideology. Rich Nigerians are getting richer. The middle class has been completely annihilated. The rest are at the base of the economic pyramid of poverty. We appeal to government to make 2008 a Year of Mercy for the Poor.

 

We charge all governments and agencies to pay pensioners promptly so as not to tempt those who are still in active service. Many officials steal because the system does not guarantee a comfortable post-service future.

 

It has been observed that many companies and banks lay off their staff during the year only to declare huge profits at the end of the year thus allowing their chief executives to live like billionaires after scattering hundreds of families like wild oats. Government must compel such companies to employ more hands and make it impossible for them to exercise arbitrary sacking of their junior workers.

 

Finally, we appeal to graduates and other unemployed people to be more creative and to tap all self-employment opportunities.

 

 

Dr. Is-haq Akintola                            Mallam Abdul Yakeen Williams

     DIRECTOR                                                      PRO