PDP Demands Reversal Of Fuel, Electricity Prices Hike
……ATIKU OPPOSES FUEL PRICE HIKE
SUCCESS NWOGU
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari led Government, to urgently review downwards fuel price and electricity tariff hike.
The PDP’s position is contained in a statement in response to the Federal Government’s position through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
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The PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the increases in fuel price and electricity tariff have increased the hardship of Nigerians.
The statement reads in part: “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.”
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) had on July 1, 2020 increased fuel price from N140.80 to N143.80 per litre.
The PPMC last Wednesday increased the ex-depot price of petrol to N151.56 per litre, but fuel is being sold by retail marketers between N160 and N165 per litre.
PDP stated that Nigerians can’t survive the hike in the cost of fuel and electricity, as imposed by the Buhari administration, given the level of poverty the administration had allegedly foisted on the nation.
The party said, “There is no way Nigerians 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 per cent unemployment rate; where over 90 million citizens live in abject poverty and many more live 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.”
The PDP said it was extremely cruel and insensitive for any body, particularly, an official of the administration, to attempt to antagonize Nigerians by comparing the 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.”
The party rejected the argument by the Minister of Information, that fuel price is lower in some West African countries, without presenting, what it called, the contradictory economic settings in those countries and that of Nigeria.
It stated that given the nation’s natural endowment, it is incontrovertible that Nigeria has always had cheaper fuel than her neighbours.
The PDP further stated that it is disgraceful that the Buhari administration, given its alleged incompetence, extreme cluelessness as well as obnoxious and poverty inducing policies, has reduced Nigeria from the Giant of Africa to a West African ‘struggler’.
It said, “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.”
The Federal Government had on Monday said despite the recent increase in the price of petrol to N162 per litre, the price of the commodity in Nigeria remained among the cheapest in Africa.
The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, during a press conference in Abuja, which the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman; and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, also attended, further said that with the 60 per cent reduction in the nation’s revenue, the present regime could no longer afford to subside petrol prices.
The minister had said, “In spite of the recent increase in the price of fuel to N162 per litre, petrol prices in Nigeria remain the lowest in the West/Central African sub-regions.
Meanwhile, former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has also demanded a downward review of the fuel and electricity prices.
Atiku, on his verified personal twitter handle @atiku on Tuesday, noted that price of crude oil had gone down from where it was in 2019, adding that fuel prices in the United States of America and Europe, are lower than they were in 2019.
He wrote: “I am a businessman. I look at things from an economic perspective. Questions beg answers. The price of crude is down from where it was in 2019.
“In the US and Europe, fuel prices are far lower than they were in 2019. If we truly deregulated, shouldn’t fuel price have dropped?”
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