Press Statement
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says there is no way our country men
and women can survive the obnoxious hike in the cost of fuel and
electricity, as currently imposed by the Buhari administration, given
the level of poverty the administration had already foisted on our
nation.
The party described the brazen attempt by the Minister of Information
and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, to justify the excessive hike in the
cost of fuel from N87 per liter under the PDP to N162 as well as
electricity from N30.23 per kwh to over N66kw/h, as yet another daring
and intolerable affront to the Nigerian citizenry, who have summarily
rejected the increases.
Our party stands with Nigerians in insisting that there is no way our
compatriots can survive a N162 per liter fuel price and a N66 per kw/h
of electricity in a country which, in the last five years, ranked as
poverty capital of the world, with a frightening 23 percent unemployment
rate; where over 90 million citizens live in abject poverty and many
more living on less than N500 a day.
Indeed, we find it very inconceivable that after the Federal Government,
through the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management and
Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, confirmed that 90 million Nigerians
are living in poverty, it still went ahead to increase the cost of
essential commodities that drive our economy.
Nigerians are already in trepidation that the excruciating price
increase is a sudden death sentence on many citizens, particularly those
living below poverty line, as they cannot survive under a worsened
economic situation.
Moreover, with a N30,000 federal monthly minimum wage, which represents
a N1,000 ($2.1) daily wage, there is no way an average Nigerian can
survive under the excessive fuel and electricity hike, with attendant
increases in transportation and other operational costs, which will
leave most citizens with nothing for food, medicines, house rents and
other basic necessities of life.
We remind President Buhari that this hike will worsen the scary
situation in the last five years, where compatriots are resorting to
suicide, slavery mission abroad as well as selling of their children as
options.
Our party therefore finds it extremely cruel and insensitive for any
body, particularly, an official of this failed administration, to
attempt to antagonize Nigerians by comparing our nation to other
countries where their Presidents are working hard in providing gainful
employments, running productive economies and functional infrastructure,
and where citizens boast of strong purchasing power.
PDP therefore rejects the highly irrational argument by the Minister of
Information, Mohammed, that fuel price is lower in some West African
countries, without presenting the contradictory economic settings in
those countries and ours.
Moreover, given our natural endowment, it is incontrovertible that
Nigeria has always had cheaper fuel than her neighbours, It is however
disgraceful that this Buhari administration, given its incompetence,
extreme cluelessness as well as obnoxious and poverty inducing policies,
has reduced Nigeria from the Giant of Africa to a West African
‘struggler’.
The PDP firmly holds that nothing but immediate downward review of the
cost of fuel and electricity can be acceptable under the current
economic situation in our country.
President Buhari must know that the duty of every responsible government
is to solve problems and not to inflict pain and invent justification
for its own failures.
On this fuel and electricity prices increase, the PDP, once again,
charges President Buhari to end the grandstanding of his administration
and listen to Nigerians before it is too late.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
