By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential elections, Peter Obi, has said it’s inhumane for members of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to keep luxuriating in comfort while Nigerians are battling with hardship. Obi also criticized Tinubu for traveling abroad while Nigerians are suffering.
Obi noted that watching Nigerians suffer from the safe ambience of foreign shores speaks volumes of the kind of leadership the Tinubu administration has given Nigerians.
He described as “draconian” the Tinubu administration’s decision to allow an increase in the price of premium motor spirit (PMS) despite the hardship in the country.
Obi said expressed his views about the state of the nation in a post he made on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Saturday.
He urged the president to reverse the increase in the pump price of petrol, in the interest of the people because many Nigerians are “living under unnecessarily precarious conditions”.
Obi stressed that the buck of deciding the petrol price stops on the president’s table despite the contrary claim that the role has been handed over to NNPCL.
“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.” Obi added.
Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited had increased the price of PMS, popularly called petrol, across its retail outlets on Wednesday.
To many, this development has further worsened the hardship in the country as Nigerians have started lamenting the consequences of the sharp increase on good and services.
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
