Presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 election,
Peter Obi, has berated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the sudden fuel
price hike from the comfort of an annual vacation.Daily Trust
reports that while President Tinubu who has now headed for France was
in London, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL),
raised the pump price of fuel from N897 per litre to N1, 030 in Abuja;
from N855 to N998 in Lagos; N1, 070 in North-East; N1,025 in other
South-West states; N1,045 in South-East and N1,075 in South-South.This had triggered reactions among Nigerians who asked Tinubu to work towards reversing the increment.But
the Federal Government, through Mohammed Idris, Information Minister,
said the oil company is solely responsible for the increment.However,
in a series of tweets on his X handle, on Saturday, Obi lamented that
Nigerians have continued groaning under extremely difficult economic
conditions, largely caused by the Federal Government’s “wrong choices”“The
NNPCL has once again raised the price of fuel (PMS) without providing
any explanation. This is both unfortunate and insensitive, considering
the wide-ranging negative consequences for our economic survival and
well-being.“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. 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,” Obi said.The former Anambra State governor said
that 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 serving as the substantive
Minister, wondering who, in this arrangement, is regulating who?He said, “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.“We
hope and pray that he acts in the best interest of the majority of
Nigerians, who are living under unnecessarily precarious conditions, and
that he does so before his return from his working vacation.”Obi
said 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.His comment comes on the heels
of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s reference to Tinubu as T-Pain
over the hike in pump price of petrol