AS Nigerians groan over the removal of fuel subsidy, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, has on President Bola Tinubu to immediately provide palliative measures to reduce the impact on Nigerians.
The call was made by the Country Director, AAN, Ene Obi, in an address during a press conference on the issue of subsidy removal and the plight of Nigerians.
Obi who was represented by the Director of Resource Mobilization, ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Memedu, where Tinubu was made to understand that his declaration had thrown millions of Nigerians into untold hardship, which also businesses have been negatively impacted.
Meanwhile, AAN also pointed out that Tinubu also failed to “acknowledge the inadequacies of the electoral umpire and the marred February 25th General Elections that brought him to power as the fifth democratically elected president of Nigeria. Instead, the president hailed the election as the best election since the Fourth Republic.”
Therefore, CSO described the President’s speech on the February 25 presidential election, which AAN was an observer as “unacceptable”, and condemn it, accusing the President of “erroneously” opined outcome of the election as a reflection of the will of Nigerians.
The statement pointed out that the President failed to acknowledge and accept the many violence that characterized the election which took the lives of many and disenfranchised thousands of eligible voters.
She said: “In his (Tinubu) speech, the President also made a far-reaching statement – “subsidy is gone”-concerning the subsidy regime of the country which immediately plunged the already impoverished Nigerians into untold hardship.
“This statement was welcomed with reckless reactions from oil marketers – hoarding petrol products and in many cases, selling petroleum products at unregulated prices.
“Less than 48hours after the inauguration speech, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Ltd jumped on the President’s announcement and released a national price list for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) – capping the new price between N488-N550 per liter.
“The removal of petrol subsidy undoubtedly has significant adverse effect on Nigerians and this ranges from increased transportation cost, higher cost of living, inflation, reduced purchasing power, social unrest, as well as heightened level of crime and criminality.
“Also, a critical underlining negative impact of the removal of petrol subsidy is that it is certainly going to widen poverty bracket in Nigeria, particularly amongst the poor masses and the excluded citizens with the ravaging unemployed youth.
“We acknowledge the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari administration to resuscitate the 4 abandoned refineries with all the funding voted to it.
“We think the focus is to think of bringing that investment back to life. The question is, how can a nation so endowed by such natural resources, not refined its products and now asking citizens to pay the price.
“Now the new President comes and says, no discussion as if there we have committed a crime against our leaders.
“As advocates of human rights, ActionAid Nigeria makes its recommendations to the Federal Government as follows: Resuscitate the four refineries to create more jobs to engage the volume of young people of Nigeria; We need to first establish, review and investigate what makes up this subsidy with citizens, organized labour involved, CSOs and stakeholders in a transparent investigative process, as government inefficiencies should not be passed to the citizens as subsidy.
“Review the Social Protection programme for the most vulnerable which was started by the past administration. Remember that the survey on multi-dimensional survey by the National Bureau of Statistics stated that more than 133m Nigerians live below the poverty line. This was before the flooding last year that affected more than 31 states. Government must also ensure that women, young persons and Persons with Disability are specially considered in the Social Protection Programme.
“Promote alternative energy sources like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to reduce the reliance on petrol by all.Immediately provide affordable and safe public transportation system across the country.
“In conclusion, the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria presents a huge challenge and the untold hardship has been reported from different parts of the country. ActionAid Nigeria stands firm in our commitment to advocate for the protection of the most vulnerable and marginalized during this transition.
“We call on the government to prioritize social protection measures, invest in critical sectors, and ensure transparency in the utilization of saved resources.
“Together, let us work towards a Nigeria where the well-being and dignity of every citizen is upheld.”
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