The Poor are Groaning, Salis Warns Tinubu

Renowned U.S. based lawyer, and politician, High Chief Owolabi Salis has advised the nation’s leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take urgent steps to execute visionary policies geared at bailing the nation and it is people, particularly the common mass of the down-trodden, from the excruciating throes of hardship in which they are helplessly entangled.

In his goodwill message to the president, on the Freedom Day, marking the anniversary celebration of June 12 victory, the Ikorodu-born Lagosian, who in 2019, contested for governorship on the platform of the Alliance For Democracy, said: “While I rejoice with you on this historic moment of celebration, I cannot but hasten to reiterate with every sense of emphasis on the need for you to hearken to this salient exhortation with every urgency it requires because the event today being celebrated will not be meaningful, unless a sustained and intensified efforts are made to mitigate the severe hardship which the people are currently passing through, and persistently groaning over.

While recalling that the general mass of the electorates unanimously voted for Chief M.K.O. Abiola, the billionaire business mogul of blessed memory, irrespective of tribe, religion or sex, he noted that the overwhelming popular support was inspired by the confidence reposed in him as the messiah divinely ordained to liberate them from the shackles of poverty, squalor and misery to a new lease of comfortable existence.

In this respect, he urged the president to put in place, effective measures geared at locating the country on the path of agricultural self-sufficiency, adding that it is inconceivable that any leader could ever hope to mobilize and lead a predominantly hungry populace towards any meaningful goal of nation building.

In this regard, he commended the exemplary model of the nation of Israel as worthy of emulation, in the sense that “It had the inherent misfortune of a barren land, which its leaders were able to transform to an agricultural paradise through a visionary application of the transformative power of science and technology.

Also citing the successful experiment of China, he stressed that its leader, Chairman Mao, was able to harness the predominantly peasant populace to achieve agricultural self-sufficiency, which he used as a pedestal to launch China to industrial and technological heights as a global force to reckon with in the comity of nations.

He stated further that the persistent demand for new minimum wage would not have generated much crisis or desperation on the part of workers if food, the most essential item for survival, were affordable to the common man

Driving home his insistent demand for an urgent emphasis on agriculture, he warned that the increase may eventually turn out an exercise in futility if urgent and frantic attempt were not made to tackle the crucial aspect of agricultural productivity as the scenario is bound to result in a logjam of inflationary spiral, arising from too much money chasing few stocks.

“Mr. President sir, if I might go two steps backwards, as it cannot be too often emphasised, the Late Tai Solarin of blessed memory, visited China sometime in the late 70s.Writing on his experience in his regular weekly column then in the Nigerian Tribune, the renowned social critic and educationist could not but express a pleasant shock that the cheapest thing to come by in terms of easy affordability was food, despite the almost explosive human population” said the lawyer-politician popularly known as Oba Mekunu (King of the poor in Lagos and New York)

“Also remember that not long ago, Ukraine a war-torn country for that matter exported 25000 tons of wheat as a token gesture to assist in easing the prevailing food crisis in our country. Mr. President, this should be enough food for thought. Let’s brace up to avoid the looming spectre of drought in order to forestall uncontrollable socio-political unrest. Remember that it was the near state of starvation that hit the Ghanaian populace in the late 60s, that sent most of its citizens trooping into Nigeria, in quest of greener pastures, just as it also ignited the process which eventually led to series of coups until the arrival of Jerry Rawlings. Also remember that it was the soaring cost of bread that eventually culminated in the French Revolution.” Salis remarked in warning reminder.

“Our dearly esteemed excellency sir, quite a couple of leaders in other countries had successfully gone through teething phase of socio-political buffetings which our dear nation is currently passing through, and in the process succeeded in etching their names in
Gold in the Eternal Hall of Fame. It is my prayer that the Almighty God above shall inspire you to navigate the nation from the prevailing socio-economic stupor to enviable tower of glory, in order that your name may eternally be immortalized in the hallowed memory of succeeding generations born and hitherto yet unborn” Salis prayed.