You have power to reverse fuel price hike, Obi tells Tinubu

Presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the sudden fuel price hike, which was consummated on his watch from the comfort of an annual vacation.

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 sparked a rash of negative reactions by Nigerians who asked Tinubu to work towards reversing the increment.

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The federal government said the oil company was solely responsible for the increment.

Mohammed Idris, Information Minister, made the assertion.

However, in a series of tweets on his X handle, on Saturday, Obi said that Nigerians had 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 were 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, was 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.