Hunger: Hardworking Nigerians should have food — Yari

The Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Abdulaziz Yari, has said that Nigerians who are not lazy should have food on their tables, arguing that the country’s economic challenges should not be blamed on the government alone.

The remark was made during a recent campaign event, where the former Zamfara governor attempted to frame the hunger crisis as a matter of individual effort rather than systemic failure, ValidViewNetwork reports.

THE IRONY OF THE CLAIM

Yari’s statement is a stunning display of political detachment.

In a country where inflation has pushed the cost of a bag of rice beyond the reach of millions, where farmers cannot access their land due to banditry, and where the naira has lost more than 70 percent of its value under this administration, the claim that hardworking Nigerians should have food is not just inaccurate. It is insulting.

The reality is that millions of Nigerians are working harder than ever and still going to bed hungry.

They are farming in insecure communities.

They are trading in markets with dwindling purchasing power.

They are civil servants whose salaries cannot cover a week’s worth of groceries.

Hard work is not the problem. The problem is a government that has failed to create the conditions for hard work to translate into a decent life.

THE EMIR OF DAURA’s WARNING

Yari’s comment is even more jarring when placed against the events of the APC’s recent campaign visit to the palace of the Emir of Daura.

During that visit, the Emir did not offer the kind of unconditional endorsement that political leaders often expect. Instead, he spoke about the need for truth and the danger of propaganda.

He reminded the campaign team that the North is not a political debtor, and that its people deserve to be judged by their lived realities, not by the promises of politicians.

The Emir’s message was clear: do not come to the palace with empty slogans. Do not tell the people that all is well when they are suffering. Do not use traditional institutions to launder political propaganda.

Yari’s comment is the exact opposite of that message. It is propaganda. It is a denial of reality. And it is precisely the kind of rhetoric that the Emir of Daura warned against.

THE CONTRAST WITH THE EMIR OF KATSINA

The contrast with the Emir of Katsina, who recently warned Yari against lying to Nigerians, is stark.

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The Katsina monarch told the campaign chief that insecurity is keeping farmers off their farms and that political leaders must confront the truth.

Yari did not listen. Instead, he is saying that hardworking Nigerians should have food.

The Emirs are speaking the truth. The campaign is speaking propaganda. And the people are caught in between.

WHY IT MATTERS

Yari’s statement is not just a gaffe. It is a window into the mindset of a campaign that has lost touch with the people it claims to serve.

When a campaign director-general tells Nigerians that their hunger is their own fault, he is telling them that their suffering does not matter.

He is telling them that the government bears no responsibility for the economic crisis. He is telling them that the millions of farmers who cannot access their land, the traders whose businesses have collapsed, and the families who cannot afford three meals a day are simply not working hard enough.

That is not a message that will win votes. It is a message that will deepen resentment.

And it is a message that the Emirs of Daura and Katsina already warned against.

The APC campaign group has been warned. The people are watching. And the hunger is real. ValidViewNetwork reports.