About 120 civil society organisations have set aside Monday, June 12, to protest against the removed Fuel Subsidy. As well as the increase in gasoline prices since President Bola Tinubu announced the subsidy withdrawal.
The parties claimed to have witnessed the suffering and instability brought on by the transfer of the expense and weight of the bogus subsidy scheme on regular Nigerians.
“The coalition directed all its affiliates, allies, and stakeholders in the 36 states and Abuja, to collaboratively mobilise for the June 12 Citizens Mass Protests, and to undertake dynamic protest actions and demonstrations, during their June 12 commemorative events that are in tandem with their peculiar environment, in compelling the Tinubu’s government to stem its foisted economic and political crisis in the country”.
The groups claim that factual evidence shows that the cost of governance was mostly responsible for the Nigerian economy’s woes. The privileges of select elites in the country also contribute to the country’s woes. They claimed this in a statement signed by the Head of the Secretariat of the National Coordinating Centre, Olawale Okunniyi.
Okunniyi stated that the organisations had agreed to organise and “lead the collective intervention” to prevent the subsidy elimination from further depressing the nation’s economy and disempowering people with low income.
He said that the leaders had also agreed during their meeting that all sorts of “phantom subsidies” must be eliminated, and that “targeting only the fuel subsidy is anti-people.”
He stated that –
“The coalition has decided to mobilise and lead the collective intervention of Nigerian citizens, youths and the masses to ensure that the elite consensus to remove the fraudulent fuel subsidy in Nigeria, does not become another opening for state finance cartel to manipulate and exploit the subsidy removal policy, to further dis-empower and pauperize the vulnerable and poor in Nigeria, in order not to plunge the vast majority of Nigerians into deeper economic crises, crimes and insecurity.
There seems to be a national elite consensus that the fuel subsidy should be removed. It is therefore obvious that all other subsidy regimes in Nigeria are plagued with the same disease of corruption and official mismanagement.
He stated that –
“Targeting just the fuel subsidy is anti-people. All corrupt/phantom subsidies must be removed.”
Okunniyi further stated the group would collate and generate citizens’ concerns. Particularly about the $800m World Bank loan obtained by the Buhari administration and how it will be applied. They would also raise issues about whether or not the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission Limited would –
“remain as an arm of government, and its true powers in the context of Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, its holistic implementation and the pricing of PMS in Nigeria”.
cc: Punch Ng
