A Nigerian socio-political group, Afenifere, has called on President Bola Tinubu to do everything possible to save Nigeria from imminent collapse.

The group, which raised the concern after its regular quarterly meeting, expressed concerns that Nigeria was on the verge of total collapse due to the policies undertaken by the Tinubu-led administration since coming into power last year.

In a communique jointly issued on Saturday by Afenifere Deputy Leader, Oladipo Olaitan, and Deputy Secretary General, Alade Rotimi-John, the group said the state of the nation had left the people perplexed, and if the ugly trend was not arrested, the country may collapse.

Afenifere also noted that majority of Nigerians were “troubled by the pervasive hardship, crippling hunger, unremitting insecurity in the land, runaway inflation, and massive unemployment all of which have left the people worse off than they were at the beginning.”

The group also frowned at what it called the “reckless, obstinate and indifferent attitude of the government to the long-term effects of the lack of forethought or purpose regarding the handling of the public revenue.”

The group decried some of the Tinubu administration’s “profligate predilection or inclination to waste resources, stating that $100m or N 240 billion as the purchase price for an Airbus A330 as a jet for the President and a further $50m to retrofit it is uncalled for.”

It noted specifically the N950m budgeted for the purchase of a new set of armoured Cadillac Escalade Limousine SUVs as befitting vehicles for the President, N21b for renovating a new mansion for the Vice President, N90b as subsidy for religious pilgrimage and N10b to renovate the Presidential Lodge as Ribadu Road, Lagos, among others give an insight of a wasteful nature of the administration.

“Afenifere is scandalised or shamed by the odium and poor international or global image which have attended these profligate or prodigal expenditures,” the group said.

“We are puzzled that a government can be so masterful at diversionary tactics just to lull the people to sleep and confuse them as they wake amid grave national circumstances and of a strident or sustained debate of its desultory or unmethodical handling of governance,” the statement added.