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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Secretary of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Peter Ameh, has attributed the rising spate of hunger, depression, and crime in the country on the effects of fuel subsidy removal by the federal government.
Ameh, in a statement he made available in Abuja on Tuesday, likened it to removing the only rare benefit the poor gets from the rich and transferring same to the rich.
“The rich are not cutting back on unnecessary government spending, flying private jets globetrotting at the expense of the poor and living luxurious lifestyle while they tell the poor to tighten their belts.
“What the federal government has done is akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul. Removing the only rare benefit the poor gets from the rich and transferring same to the rich.
“Ever since the removal, transportation has quadrupled, and the cost of goods and services have all also quadrupled.
“Our collective economic condition of gnashing our teeth and literally passing through the valley of shadow of death today is a reflection of the consequences of unplanned and unstructured removal of fuel subsidy.
“Our standard of living has significantly gone southwards, hunger and starvation is not only staring us in our faces, but gnawing our bowels. Most parents cannot send their wards to school anymore. Criminality is on a geometric increase.
“There are more reports of missing pots of soup than ever before in recent history of our country. The unplanned, unprepared and unstructured removal of subsidy is the root cause of all this harsh economic realities and it brought crushing economic misery to the majority of Nigerians,” Ameh argued in his statement.
Proffering solution, the CUPP scribe noted that; “the better plan would have been to phased it out in a way the poor will not bear the brunt of the economic consequences. The should have made sure that the public transport system was fixed, what the skyrocketed costs of transportation add to food prices (food inflation is all time high) and its impact on the economy alone is not what any reasonable government should have overlooked.
“Make sure that all the refineries are maintained and working properly to put a stop to whatever cost the country incurs from the importation of finished byproducts of crude oil into the country.
“This plan will also stop the hidden corruption and its attendant effect on our people. Turning Nigeria into a working Economy would have really helped to create jobs that enable the poor to breath under such circumstances,” he noted in the statement.
