Legal practitioner and former Labour Party chieftain Kenneth Okonkwo has attributed the recent stampedes during food distribution events in Nigeria to widespread hunger and desperation.
Over the weekend, tragic incidents in Anambra State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) claimed numerous lives and left several others injured, casting a pall of mourning across the nation.
While President Bola Tinubu and others blamed the stampedes on poor organization and indiscipline, Okonkwo argued that the root cause is the acute hunger Nigerians are experiencing. Speaking during Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, he said: “This president shifted all the responsibility to the organizers—people who were only trying to help those in need. But let me tell you: these stampedes happened in the east, west, and north. It’s now a nationwide issue—Nigerians everywhere are hungry, and things are extremely hard.”
Okonkwo emphasized the dire situation driving the stampedes: “They didn’t die because they were poor. Poverty exists everywhere in the world. They died because they were desperately hungry. These people knew that if they didn’t get that food, they had nothing else at home. That’s why they risked everything for N5,000 and a few grains of rice. Under Tinubu’s government, the worth of life has tragically been reduced to these meager amounts.”
Despite the tragedies, President Tinubu rated his administration highly during a media chat, defending key policies such as the removal of the fuel subsidy. He insisted these measures were necessary to set Nigeria on the path to recovery.
Okonkwo strongly disagreed, criticizing the president for self-praise: “The worst statement the president made during his first Presidential Media Chat was scoring himself ‘excellent.’ This government has performed worse than any administration since independence.”
Okonkwo’s remarks have sparked widespread discussions on the state of the nation, highlighting the growing frustration among Nigerians over economic hardships and governance.
