Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has blamed the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak as well as the maladministration of past administrations in the country as the root causes of the unrest in the country. He said the recent protests across the country is a clear message to elected officials, that Nigerians are hungry and angry. He warned that decisive steps must be taken to restore normalcy.
The governor stated this in Lokoja, yesterday, while featuring on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, saying the COVID-19 scourge birthed the current unrest in the country.
His words: “I warned then that the pandemic was a creation to promote poverty, stifle our national growth and breed hunger. They want us to be locked down in hunger. They were not happy that we were getting closer to sufficiency in food production. And we bought the unfortunate market.
“What we are seeing today is the product of hunger. People are hungry and angry. We must find quick solution to that. “I never believed in the hype around COVID-19. I rejected the international fund to support states affected by the pandemic because my state wasn’t affected. I was the only governor that refused to sign that document.”
On the attack on warehouses, the governor said it wasn’t the fault of the governors. He said some of the palliatives came late and some of them were bad.
“Some of the food items came late and we even raised eyebrow over the supplies. You are bringing rice for me when I have built the second largest rice mill in Northern Nigeria in my state. What is the economic sense in it? Why didn’t they allow us to buy these products in our respective states and stimulate our local economy? Some people really benefitted from the unfortunate situation,” he said.