Southern and Middle Belt leaders urge Tinubu to tackle hardship, release Kanu, others

Leaders from the Southern part of Nigeria and the Middle Belt on Thursday urged President Bola Tinubu to address the poor standing of living and other problems crippling the country.

In a communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Abuja, the leaders who came together under the platform of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum (SMBLF) appealed to the president to halt the Naira depreciation and begin efforts to restructure Nigeria to full fiscal federalism.

They also charged Tinubu to address the marginalisation of some sections of the country on appointments and release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu in a bid to restore sanity in the South-East.

The communiqué was released to journalists on Friday.

The former federal commissioner for information, Chief Edwin Clark, presided over the meeting attended by the Leader of the Pan Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, his Ohanaeze Ndigbo counterpart, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, and the President of the Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus.

READ ALSO: Middle Belt Forum implores FG to prioritize IDPs’ resettlement over census exercise

Also at the meeting were the National Chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Senator Emmanuel Ibok-Essien, former Governor of the old Kwara State, Cornelius Adebayo, his Akwa Ibom counterpart, Obong Victor Attah, and several others.

On the outcome of the last general elections, the leaders commended the political class for their recourse to constitutional means in resolving their grievances.

They stressed that the Supreme Court judgment on the presidential election had effectively ended the legal processes on the conduct and outcome of the poll and promised to make a substantial pronouncement on the judgment in the coming days.

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