BY Dyepkazah Shibayan
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in 2023, says it is “draconian” of President Bola Tinubu to allow an increase in the price of petrol while he is vacationing in comfort.
Tinubu is currently on his annual vacation in Europe.
On October 9, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited increased the price of petrol across its retail outlets nationwide.
In a post on X on Saturday, Obi said he prays Tinubu acts in the best interest of the citizens before returning to the country because many Nigerians are “living under unnecessarily precarious conditions”.
“This is neither how an economy’s resources should be managed nor how a nation should be governed. In this new measure, there is neither sound economics nor necessary compassion,” he said.
“We are told that the NNPCL is now a limited liability company, regulated by agencies such as the NUPRC and NMDPRA, yet there seems to be growing confusion about the roles and responsibilities of the NNPCL and these regulating bodies.
“Interestingly, both the NNPCL and the regulatory agencies are supposed to be under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria serving as the substantive Minister. Who, in this arrangement, is regulating who?
“With the unprecedented but avoidable hardship that Nigerians are enduring, the responsibility for providing a full explanation, offering alternative options, and most importantly, reversing the sudden price hike falls squarely on the Honorable Minister of Petroleum Resources/President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“To casually inflict such a draconian measure on the populace from the comfort of an annual vacation amounts to taking the people’s welfare lightly and for granted.”
The petrol price adjustment has aggravated the country’s economic crisis, stoking the operating cost of businesses amid fears that inflation could worsen.
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