Against the backdrop of recent fuel price hike, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has claimed that President Bola Tinubu is not disturbed about the sufferings of Nigerians.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of PDP in 2023, in a post on X, said the current economic crisis in the country is caused by the haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management.
Similarly, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has decried the pains being inflicted on Nigerians by the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Tinubu.
He described the administration as a badly run fuel station where everyone jostled to be a price gouger rather than a government that should grow the economy as stipulated in chapter two of the 1999 constitution.
This comes as the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday asked the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration to review its policies and take immediate steps to ensure the reduction in the price of fuel.
It also charged the APC government to make key investments towards food production, revamp the manufacturing sector to stimulate employment opportunities and mitigate the suffering of Nigerians.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Organised Private Sector had called for the immediate reversal of the hike in the pump prices of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
Retail stations of NNPC raised the price of petrol to N1,030 from N897/litre in Abuja, and in Lagos it was hiked to N998/litre from N868/litre. Other locations witnessed similar price hikes.
The price hike, a second in one month, represents about 14.8 per cent or N133 rise.
Reacting to the implication of the price hike, Atiku, the presidential candidate of PDP in 2023, said, “The haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management has been the reason we are in this current economic crisis in the country.
“As things stand, there will be no let up in the escalating inflation rate, which is drowning the material well-being of Nigerians. It is even more worrying that T-pain is undisturbed by the hardship in the country,” he said.
SDP 2023 presidential candidate, Adebayo, on his official X handle, said: “The Administration of @officialABAT is nothing more than a badly run fuelling station in which virtually everyone is jostling to be a price gouger rather than a government as stipulated in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to grow the economy.”
He also lambasted the APC and PDP for breaching the oath of office, saying, “Failure of @OfficialAPCNg and @OfficialPDPNig to observe the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy is a breach of the oath of office and an albatross.”
He wondered why Nigerians should languish in penury and the economy allowed to collapse when the solution is not far-fetched.
He said: “How can the people languish in penury and the economy collapse into doldrums when we have the solutions firmly in our hands? “Macroeconomics is neither witchcraft nor rocketry. All that is required is data fed development planning anchored on rational choices in line with broad principles and set targets that lower costs of factors of production and increases capacity for productivity and Naira as a store-of-value currency and a fiscal policy and monetary management that orientate allocative efficiencies to reward delayed gratification by way of multidimensional investments.
“It means full employment of labour and other factors is sacrosanct. We cannot leave our people behind and hope to achieve prosperity. Enough word for the wise,” Adebayo said.
At the end of its 78th meeting in Abuja, the PDP BoT, in a communique read by the BoT chairman Senator Adolphus Wabara, said “The BoT expresses serious concerns over the worsening economic hardship, acute food crisis and general sense of misery, despondency, uncertainty and hopelessness in the country occasioned by the anti-people policies of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration
“The BoT demands that the APC administration immediately review its policies and take immediate steps to ensure the reduction in the price of fuel, make key investments towards food production, revamp our manufacturing sector to stimulate employment opportunities and mitigate the suffering of Nigerians.”
The BoT also condemned and rejected the brazen rigging of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State by the APC in connivance with INEC and some compromised Police operatives.
It said votes cast at the polling units showed the PDP and its candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo won the election, adding that PDP will take every legitimate step to ensure the recovery of the mandate freely given to it by the people of Edo State.
While noting that the electoral manipulation of the Edo State governorship election is part of APC’s plot to foist a one-party system and totalitarian rule in the country, the BoT urged Nigerians to resist APC’s plan to rig the November 16, 2024 Governorship election in Ondo State.
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