The Rivers State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), says the palliative measures just announced by Governor Chibuike Amaechi are not realizable and also are contradictory both in terms in principles.
In a statement issued and signed by Jerry Needam, Publicity Secretary on behalf of the party notes a salient contradiction in Governor Amaechi supporting the federal government’s withdrawal of the contentious fuel subsidy and at the same time promising to put in place another form of fuel subsidy in the State as though life starts and ends in Port Harcourt for the hapless Rivers people and residents.
The ACN says it’s either Gov Amaechi and other proponents of the fuel subsidy removal are collaborating in this satanic policy of stratifying the country in two categories – the upper-upper class and the lower-lower class or they do not simply understand the mathematics of running a petroleum based economy in the context of International politics.
Expressing grave disappointment at Amaechi’s under-estimation of the bandwagon effect of the subsidy withdrawal, Jerry Needam said fixing transport fares for certain routes in Port Harcourt as though no other town exists in the State has exposed Amaechi’s vision and scope of Rivers State.
The ACN spokesman further argued that that arrangement cannot work because what informs the rise in transport fares is not only the hike in the pump price of petrol but the total economic convulsion stirred up by the subsidy withdrawal in the markets etc.
On the discount markets, Jerry Needam said Gov Amaechi should not pretend not to know that the Christmas experimental exercise of the project was a woeful failure, stressing that mere mentioning of the discount markets is to further irritate the protesting poor masses.
The ACN wondered how a government that lacks the capacity to checkmate the excesses of commuters and touts when the price of fuel was affordable can change overnight to assume the powers it has never had.
“As a party concerned with the welfare and overall good of Nigerian citizens, we are aware that the claim of a tiny cabal by the ruling PDP in the country sabotaging the nation’s economy is a ruse. The only cabal mismanaging the economy and religiously trampling on the rights of frustrated Nigerian people are the PDP chieftains and their cohorts in business and the industry. As long as the PDP remains in power there is no future for this country. It’s a party that trades on lies and deception. The fuel subsidy withdrawal is just one of such political gimmicks to acquire more wealth for themselves”, the ACN regretted.
The ACN insists that the only way to deregulate the petroleum down stream is to resuscitate the nation’s refineries and entrusting the management of the petroleum industry in the hands of credible, knowledgeable and God-fearing Nigerians and not PDP card carrying members and contractors.
Jerry Needam, JP
Publicity Secretary
Action Congress of Nigeria
Rivers State
