By Idowu Ephraim Faleye
You say the masses are hungry. You scream it on the streets. You chant it on television. You repeat it on social media until your voices echo across the land. Yet when one looks closer, the truth glares back at us—you, yourselves are not hungry. You never were. You had your chance to serve. You sat in offices where you enjoyed the good things of power. You tasted the sweetness of the commonwealth. You built empires with the people’s resources. But today, you beat your chest and shout, “the masses are hungry,” not because you care about the people, but because you want the seat of power.
You cry that the people are hungry; that the North is marginalized, you scream that the South is suffering, and you claim to be the voice of the downtrodden, but you do so only because power has slipped from your hands. It is not compassion that drives your cries. It is not empathy that fuels your slogans. It is bitterness, it is ambition, it is the burning desire to reclaim the throne.
Look carefully and you will see. If it was about the people, you would also tell them the whole story. You would tell them that when Tinubu took over the government, the economy was broken, battered, and bleeding. You would remind them that it was not Tinubu who printed money recklessly until inflation climbed like wild fire. It was not Tinubu who left oil production collapsing while oil thieves siphoned billions daily. It was not Tinubu who left electricity to rot until the national grid became a national embarrassment. It was not Tinubu who ran up debts until the country’s credit was almost useless in the international market. But you will not say this because it doesn’t serve your ambition.
An internationally respected voice, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who understands how the economy of a nation is measured, said clearly that Tinubu’s government has stabilized the economy. Stabilization is not bread on the table yet, but it is the foundation that must be laid before bread can be multiplied. Stabilization is not instant rice, but it is the fertile ground on which rice fields can grow. Without stabilization, there is no growth. Without stabilization, there is no hope. Yet you deliberately ignore this truth. You know it, but you cannot admit it, because if you admit it, then your campaign of hunger collapses.
Yes, people are hungry. Yes, food prices climbed after subsidy removal. Yes, inflation bites hard. Nobody denies that. Tinubu himself has admitted it. But to pretend as if nothing else is happening, to pretend as if all is doom, is the height of dishonesty. Because at the same time that prices are high, the government is also rebuilding the broken pillars of the economy. Electricity output is rising. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, over 6,000 megawatts of power were generated and transmitted successfully. The national grid, once collapsing almost weekly, now has new stability measures. New mini-grids are springing up in states, delivering power directly to communities that were forgotten. Idle power plants are being revived. Investment is flowing in. Is this not progress? Is this not hope? Why do you ignore this?
And what about oil theft? For years, Nigeria bled as thieves carted away over a hundred thousand barrels every day. That was money that could have built schools, hospitals, roads. That was money that could have subsidized food and fertilizer. Under this government, oil theft has been slashed from 108,000 barrels per day to just 5,000 barrels. That is not a small victory. That is billions of naira reclaimed every single day. That is national pride restored. Yet, when you cry that the people are hungry, you close your eyes to this victory. Because acknowledging it weakens your argument.
And when governors today receive allocations four times what they used to get, do you ask what they are doing with it? No. You turn all the blame on the president. But if a governor gets four times more allocation and refuses to invest in agriculture, even when maize only takes four months to harvest, cassava seven months, yam six months, and rice seven months, who is to blame when after 26 months you are still crying “ebi n pa wa”? If with all that money your governor refuses to build farms, mechanize agriculture, and feed his people, should you still shout at the president? But you will never admit this truth, because your focus is not on solving hunger, your focus is on seizing the seat.
You speak about marginalization . But where were your voices when, for eight years, Nigeria became a nepotistic estate? Where were your voices when President Buhari filled every key office with northerners? The President from the North, the Senate President from the North, the SGF from the North, the Chief of Staff from the North, the NNPC GMD from the North, the FCT Minister from the North, the Attorney-General from the North, and all the security chiefs—from DSS to Customs, from Defence to Police—all from the North. Heads of key federal agencies—NPA, EFCC, FIRS, NCC, NHIS, PenCom, FAAN, NIMASA—all dominated by the North. Where were your loud cries then? Did you say the South was marginalized? Did you cry that the East was hungry? No. You kept quiet. Because the seat was still in your corner. That silence is the evidence of your hypocrisy.
Today you weep and gnash your teeth, not because the people are hungry, but because you are out of the circle of power. You long not for the masses to eat, but for yourselves to sit. Your hunger is not stomach hunger. It is political hunger. And that is why your words ring hollow. That is why your cries sound false. That is why the people are beginning to see through your deception.
When you ignore the fact that GDP has risen to 3.4 percent, when you pretend not to know that our foreign reserves climbed above $40 billion, when you bury the truth that oil production is up to 1.8 million barrels per day, when you shut your ears to the fact that remittances rose and balance of payment swung to a surplus, when you erase from memory the 3 Million Technical Talent program that is training youth in AI, coding, and data, when you refuse to mention that thousands of CNG buses are replacing petrol buses to cut transport cost, when you brush aside the debt reduction, and the massive increase in state allocations, it becomes obvious: your problem is not hunger in the land, your problem is that you no longer have access to the throne.
But the people must understand this game. They must see the manipulation for what it is. Hunger is real, yes. But political hunger is deadlier, because it uses real pain as a tool for personal ambition. Political hunger turns genuine suffering into campaign posters. Political hunger weaponizes the stomach so it can conquer the seat. That is what we are seeing today.
And so, when next you hear them cry, “the people are hungry,” ask yourself: If they cared about the people, and they know that the people are hungry, why don’t they invest billions of stolen wealth in their possession in agriculture in order to provide food for the masses and create jobs for them, instead of banking and investing it in foreign lands and only bringing part of it back for politics in order to conquer power so that they can plunder more?
If they cared about the people, why didn’t they cry when Buhari packed the whole government with one region? If they cared about the people, why didn’t they build farms? If they cared about the people, why do they ignore electricity improvements, oil theft reduction, debt repayment, and the rebuilding of our credibility in the global market by this administration? If they cared about the people, why is it only now that their voice has grown so loud?
The truth is this: they don’t care about the people. They care about power. And as long as Tinubu sits on that seat, they will keep crying “hunger” not because the people are hungry, but because they themselves are starving for power.
The irony is painful. The hypocrisy is glaring. And the people must not be deceived. Because the real hunger in Nigeria today is not hunger for food. The real hunger is the hunger of those who lost power and want it back at all cost.
*Idowu Ephraim Faleye writes from Ado-Ekiti +2348132100608*