ACN to President Jonathan: Apologise To Nigerians Over Fuel Subsidy Mess
Normal.dotm 0 0 1 610 3478 huhuonline 28 6 4271 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false
The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) wants President Goodluck Jonathan to apologise to Nigerians for his government's ill-advised removal of fuel subsidy in January, saying the House of Representatives Committee's probe report shows that the removal was an
egregious error of judgement that has left Nigerians feeling swindled by their government.
Huhuonline.com / learnt in a statement issued by ACN's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday in Lagos.
"Against all informed pieces of advice, even from well-informed industry insiders and analysts, President Jonathan approved the removal of fuel subsidy and went ahead to defend it. Well, the President is human and therefore can also be wrong. But when he is, as it has now been proved, he should be humble enough to admit it and apologise."
It said after the apology, the President should then revert the fuel price to the pre-January price of 65 kobo per litre and then proceed to implement the recommendations of the committee without delay, especially the prosecution of all indicted persons and companies.
ACN also said whether or not the committee recommended such, the President should fire all those who advised-or misadvised - him on the fuel subsidy issue, especially the officials who wasted public funds in organising the charade called stakeholders' meetings which, as it turned out, was an orchestrated scam, as the decision to remove the subsidy had already been taken.
"In more-civilised climes, those who bandied spurious figures to Nigerians and hinted that the economy would collapse if the subsidy was not removed-would by now have tendered their resignations-with apologies-over the discovery that what the government has been subsidising over the years are corruption and inefficiency, not fuel.
"The sectional groups who threw their weight behind the fuel subsidy removal, for no other reason than that the President is their 'son', should also have repeated the adverts they placed in the newspapers, but this time repudiating their earlier adverts and apologising to Nigerians.
"Since honour is in short supply here, and these people are ready to carry on as if nothing has happened, the President should show rare courage by sacking all those he has the power to sack, and recommending the removal of those he cannot single-handedly remove. Any action short of the above will be a joke which Nigerians are not ready to accept."
It said though many Nigerians have expressed shock and anger at the report of the House Committee, especially the huge payments made to unknown and unqualified fuel importers and the recommendation that the NNPC, PPPRA and some oil marketers should refund over 1 trillion naira, the party is not surprised that things have turned out this way.
"In statements after statements, we told the President that there is no subsidy on fuel, and that what the government claims to be subsidising are corruption and inefficiency. We quoted informed analysts, who proved - with facts and figures-that the average true price of a litre of fuel is N34.03. We suggested ways in which the government can truly deregulate the sector without inflicting untold hardship on Nigerians. But in the end, as always, the government ignored all the interventions and went ahead with its pre-meditated action.
"Nigerians were made to pay for the corruption perpetrated by a few fat cats in the name of fuel subsidy, and a government with the primary responsibility of ensuring the well-being of its citizens inflicted untold pain on them in the new year, as the prices of goods and services shot up in the wake of the fuel price hike and many who had travelled for the holidays were stranded for days. Someone has to pay for this fraud perpetrated against Nigerians.
"No amount of intimidation, through the deployments of armed policemen to places of possible protests, can stop Nigerians from asking questions and demanding answers after the exposure of the knee-deep rot in this critical sector of the economy. Those who have been elected to lead must justify the people's votes before asking for their support again. That is the essence of leadership."