Former Education Minister and founder of FixPolitics Initiative, Oby Ezekwesili, has accused President Bola Tinubu and other Nigerian politicians of a complete lack of empathy, saying they should be held responsible for the crises bedevilling Nigeria.

“Humility and empathy remain in short supply among our public officials, and that’s unfortunate, but please stop dragging those who were evidently helping fill the gap that your own failures massively created,” Ms Ezekwesili wrote on X on Friday.

Recent tragic stampedes in Ibadan, Anambra and the Federal Capital Territory resulted in the loss of over 60 lives, including children, as Nigerians struggled for food items amid the festive season.

However, Mr Tinubu, in his maiden media chat, attributed the mishaps to indiscipline on the part of the beneficiaries of the palliatives, accusing organisers of lack of coordination.

“It is very sad that people are not well-organised. We just have to be more disciplined in our society. I have been giving out foodstuffs, commodities, clothing and envelopes for the past 25 years. I’ve never experienced this kind of incident because we are organised,” the president noted.

Also, Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun warned against uncoordinated gatherings, insisting on strict guidelines for organisers to prevent further occurrence.

Criticising Mr Tinubu and other Nigerian politicians for impoverishing the people, Ms Ezekwesili said they should be held responsible for the tragedies.

“Reading the statements of @officialABAT, the IG of @PoliceNG, @nassnigeria officials and their many senior, junior and minion public officials as well as their allies, you can tell how totally detached from reality these people all are. How are these ‘leaders’ failing to connect the dots on how their serial leadership failures have turned normally quiet food charity events (that used to happen without any risk to life) into death traps,” she noted.

Mr Ezekwesili further accused the Tinubu-led administration of benefitting from the misfortunes of Nigerians, expressing hope that arrested organisers would be exonerated.

“These self-indulgent folks are cocooned away in luxury and blind to how desperate the times are for their fellow Nigerians who now embrace the risk of death to get a ‘loaf of bread’ for themselves and their children.

“I hope the courts will act in the spirit of jurisprudence and not mere legalism on the matters of benefactors being held in custody for ‘doing good that went wrong’,” she concluded.