President of the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) and lawyer, Fegalo Nsuke, have faulted the palliative measures put in place by government to bolster the consequence of the removal of fuel subsidy on the people, saying it was a wrong strategy.
Fegalo Nsuke said, “People need a functional system that offer opportunities and encourage production and not to be made to live on humanitarian gestures. Moreover, given Nigeria’s resource endowments, citizen’s living standards can significantly improve with investments in infrastructure and investor-friendly incentives.
“The present state of Nigeria is pathetic and I do not think things will get better with palliatives given the state of our roads and distribution system, power supply, and other essential infrastructure. Therefore, the government should begin with building infrastructure and providing security for farmers to boost food production while other sectors are being developed. The palliatives will not be sustainable if standards of living continue to decline. We also have to face the realities.
”Workers must get commemorate pay rise to cope with the pains of subsidy removal. Nigerians will not pay same price for energy like citizens of Saudi Arabia and be on a minimum wage of N40, 000 per month (approximately $50). In essence, palliatives will be meaningless in an economy with exponentially rising inflation, increasing unemployment and high insecurity. Government should deliberately invest in building social infrastructure and food production. That will be a better way to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal than free transport and all that, which are not sustainable.” He said.
Also in agreement with this is a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leader in Delta state, Alhaji Mumakhai Unagha, who declared that, “The fuel subsidy is endless as it has brought untold hardship to the entire country. It is not limited to the poor but to the average Nigerians which is very unfortunate. The federal government should urgently find an urgent solution to it; if not the country will slide to anarchy.
He said; ”I am convinced that the federal government never envisaged that it would have such a negative effect on the masses. Otherwise, President Tinubu would never have announced the removal. Subsidy removal was a well-hatched and planned theory of the West to sabotage Nigeria to which our educated experts never thought of. The idea was wicked and unacceptable. Ordinarily, what we thought was that before the subsidy removal, the various refineries ought to have been put in place and new ones built. I believe that the government will be able to manage the situation to avoid snowballing to a full-blown and uncontrollable crisis. Nigerians are hungry and dying on a daily basis.
He added that, The federal government should fix all the refineries, which is the only way to salvage and save the situation. The N500 billion budgeted to remedy the hardship is not the solution, rather reverse it for now. Palliative is not the solution. Now that we have experimented with the removal and its effects proving tough economic hardship, we should reverse it. We need the subsidy.”
