The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed outrage at the recent hike in petrol prices, lamenting that the federal government is inflicting further hardship on Nigerians.
PDP rejected what it described as the punishing increase in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS) to over N1,000 per litre in various parts of the country and says if the economy is properly managed, it shouldn’t be more than N250 per litre.
The leading opposition party stressed that it was a brutal assault on the sensibility and well-being of Nigerians “by the insensitive and arrogant All Progressives Congress (APC) administration”.
PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said, “The thoughtless increase in fuel price, especially at this time, is a huge recipe for crisis, as Nigerians cannot bear its worsening effect on the suffocating economic hardship, which they currently face under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led APC administration.
“The secretive and corrupt administration of the petroleum sector and persistent increase in fuel price under the Tinubu-administration, without due regard to the wellbeing of the people, is akin to pushing Nigerians to the wall and daring them to do their worse.”
Ologunagba argued that the APC administration had consistently shown itself “to be anti-people, unconcerned and deaf to the agonies of millions of Nigerians who can no longer afford their daily meals, medications and basic support for families due to the catastrophic high cost of living occasioned by the insensitive and reckless policies of the Tinubu administration”.
According to the PDP spokesman, “Today, under the Tinubu-led APC administration, over 150 million Nigerians have sunk below poverty line, businesses are collapsing daily, as the naira now exchanges for over N1,600 to a dollar, with over 34 per cent inflation rate and over 40 per cent unemployment rate, which are expected to rise further with the latest draconian increase in the price of fuel.
“There is practically no hope in sight under the current APC government policies, as major multi-national companies continue to exit our country in droves in the face of ill-conceived and ill-implemented macro-economic policies.
“The admission by the APC-led federal government that it has handed the fate of Nigerians to oil racketeers in the name of a free market economy further validates the position of the PDP that the Tinubu-led administration has abdicated the primary purpose of government; which is to provide for the welfare and security of the citizens.”
Ologunagba added, “President Tinubu is the Minister of Petroleum Resources and cannot exonerate his government and officials from the secretive and fraudulent management of the petroleum sector, which is fast pushing our nation’s economy to the precipice.”
The PDP spokesman stated, “it is inexplicable that the APC administration continues to increase fuel price despite the scandalous revelation in the public domain that it is secretly paying a whopping N5.4 trillion as fuel subsidy for 2024.
“The APC government has now become an enabler of a cabal of corrupt APC rent-seekers who derive pleasure in inflicting pains on Nigerians while hugely benefiting from the proceeds of incessant increase in fuel price to satisfy and fund their luxury appetite and consumption.
“With the hopeless state of affairs of our nation today, our party wonders what President Tinubu, during his numerous trips abroad, says to his foreign counterparts in nations where leaders prioritise the welfare of their people!
“Nigerians will recall that the PDP had on several occasions offered constructive advice and suggestions on the management of the economy, which the APC government in its arrogance in failure ignored.
“Our party restates that with a deft, transparent and innovative management of resources, economic potentials, comparative advantage and national refining capacity, petrol should not sell more than N250 per litre in Nigeria.”
PDP called on Tinubu to save the country from further socio-economic dislocation by immediately reversing the latest increase in fuel price and revisit all life-discounting and suffocating policies of the APC government.
Chuks Okocha, Onyebuchi Ezigbo, Michael Olugbode, Adedayo Akinwale, Dike Onwuamaeze, Emma Okonji and Agnes Ekebuike
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