Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has expressed disappointment that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, led by President Bola Tinubu is more obsessed with early campaigns, defections to its fold and other politicking for re-election in 2027, than addressing the security challenges and other critical problems confronting the country.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Muhammad-Baba, ACF lamented that public policy responses to the insecurity situation, especially in the north, had remained ineffective, even as wanton reckless expenditures by public officials were in contrast to sacrifices by citizens.
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.”
