Tina Amanda
An Oil and Gas Expert, Azubuike Azubuike has condemned the proposed subsidy removal by the Federal government, describing it as fraudulent and wrong to subsidize an imported product.
Azubuike who is the former Port Harcourt Zonal Chairman of PENGASSAN, in an interview with our correspondent, maintained that so long as Nigeria is importing Petroleum products into the country, subsidy removal is never the option or solution to an already collapsing economy.
He emphasized that the way forward is for the Federal government to revamp the Nations refineries, increase the energy in the country to enable manufacturers come on board.
“The country right now is faced with lots of economic challenges especially when it comes to issues about energy. The Federal government recently said they have no answer to hike in price of domestic Gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) only for then to turn around and talk about subsidy removal, which will automatically increase the price of fuel to over three hundred (300) per liter.
“This present government, before they took over power, made Nigerians believe there is nothing like subsidy, that it is a fraud. It means this government is a government of fraud, by coming up with subsidy removal, the big question is; what are they subsidizing?.
“They want to remove subsidy on an imported product, they should revamp our refineries, let’s be producing, then they can talk about subsidy. These are some of the criminal finding the elites are doing to this country.
“Why are the refineries not working? These are critical questions Nigerians should ask our leaders, it is not all about APC, PDP or whatever political Party, it is about the betterment of the citizenry, there is no special market for any political party, everybody buys from same market.
“The government promised to put how many billion naira to repair Port Harcourt refinery, till date nothing have been done there. They talked about buying some shares from Dangote refinery, do they mean our lives will be in the hands of one man? The federal government must do what is right and needful first, by fixing our refineries.”
Azubuike insisted further that the removal of subsidy will collapse the naira strength the more and cause severe hardship to an already suffering Masses.
“People are really finding things difficult, the masses are suffering, if they remove subsidy when the country is not producing, the implications are that it will have negative effect on the purchasing power of naira.
“The little people who find themselves in a working environment will suffer more. How much is their salaries? Will there be increment in salaries? Even if there is, it will still not be a enough because the subsidy.”
