The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked the Federal Government to reverse the latest hike in the petrol pump price, describing it as a brutal assault on the sensibility of Nigerians.
PDP in a statement on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the increase in petrol price “without due regard to the wellbeing of the people is akin to pushing Nigerians to the wall and daring them to do their worse.”
According to the statement, the increase, especially at this time, “is a huge recipe for crisis as Nigerians cannot bear its worsening effect on the suffocating economic hardship which they currently face under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led APC administration.”
Ologunagba claimed that under the Tinubu administration, 150 million Nigerians have sunk below the poverty line.
He stated that businesses are collapsing daily with an over 34 percent inflation rate, saying there is an over 40 per cent unemployment rate.
“The thoughtless increase in fuel price, especially at this time, is a huge recipe for crisis, as Nigerians cannot bear its worsening effect on the suffocating economic hardship which they currently face under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led APC administration,” the statement reads.
“The APC administration has consistently shown itself to be anti-people, unconcerned, and deaf to the agonies of millions of Nigerians who can no longer afford their daily meals, medications, and basic support for families due to the catastrophic high cost of living occasioned by the insensitive and reckless policies of the Tinubu administration.”
“There is practically no hope in sight under the current APC government policies as major multinational companies continue to exit our country in droves in the face of ill-conceived and ill-implemented macro-economic policies,” he said.
“With the hopeless state of affairs of our nation today, our Party wonders what President Tinubu, during his numerous trips abroad, says to his foreign counterparts in nations where leaders prioritize the welfare of their people.
“Nigerians will recall that the PDP had on several occasions offered constructive advice and suggestions on the management of the economy, which the APC government, in its arrogance in failure ignored.
“The PDP calls on President Tinubu to save the country from further socio-economic dislocation by immediately reversing the latest provocative increase in fuel price and revisit all life-discounting and suffocating policies of the APC government.”
He said with “deft, transparent, and innovative management of resources, economic potential, comparative advantage, and national refining capacity, petrol should not sell more than N250 per litre in the country,” Ologunagba added.