Hon. Dr. Joshua Audu Gana, a House of Representatives member has reminded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the hike in fuel price was having excruciating pains on the down trodden masses.
” They are lamenting about the high cost and scarcity of consumables such as tomatoes and peppers in the market.”
Dr Gana representing Lavun, Mokwa and Edati Federal constituency at the House of Representatives was speaking on the Advent Cable Network Nigeria Television ACNNTV morning programme “Now Streaming” on 28 June 2023 . Topic: “Hardship And Insecurity In the Country” with a co discussant Rotimi Aloko, National Coordinator, City Boy ambassadors.
Dr Gana said that around this time of the year scarcity of these consumables were always noticeable but the removal of oil subsidy had made things worse for the masses.
To make it worse the farmers “are scared of going to the farms due to the day today increase of kidnapping and banditry in the country. ”
Dr Gana concurred with the fears of ex-president, Buhari that the subsidy removal would have caused ” APC to lose the 2023 election if the subsidy removal had happened during his time.”
He said the ex-president was right saying: “APC did not stand a chance to win general elections from the onset. knowing that the subsidy removal implementation would affect Nigerians badly, and will not favor them in general elections.”
In his own contribution Rotimi Aloko asserted that “From day one, President Tinubu had told Nigerians that it was going to be a tough decision that we have to pay the price for certain things.
“The subsidy removal which we are facing now is long time overdue, we are presently experiencing a tough time due to the subsidy removal but certainly, we have to let it go”.
He said we could only hope that the government “is going to come up with good plans and policies that will help to reduce the suffering of Nigerians,”
On the issue of insecurity, Dr Gana said this issue should be handled with tact “Meritocracy and core competencies should come first at a time like this, you need battle men because we are facing deplorable insecurity across our country.
” We need those who are battle-tested, of good track records, and are not afraid to die for their country and when it comes to the matters of security it should not be based on state or federal zoning but should be based on merits and due intelligence.”
On proposed electricity tariff, Mr Aloko acknowledged that people were suffering and the effect was more on the masses, but he implored the people to be patient.
He said “I think the government is seriously working on it and I’m sure at the right time things will fall in place. But Nigeria should just be patient.”
Dr Gana speaking on ongoing in the oil and gas sector, said the project was aimed at bringing gas to areas where there is no gas, “to situate power plants that are fired by gas, and making gas prices cheaper, which will help at the long run to bring down tariff.
He also said that “The federal government, through the Rural Education Agency and other agencies, and maybe donor agencies in the world, should bring solar systems into our community.”,
He stated the sources of fueling power that we have in the country are geothermal, gas, solar, hydro, wind, nuclear.
“Our environment is a bit polluted; we don’t have proper waste management. the waste from everywhere can be dumped into one of these places and processed into power. So, the waste you’re generating generates your power”. He added.
Dr Gana therefore implored the government based on workers salary increase. “Let us treat all in our systems from those in the civil service, the organized and disorganized private sector, and then you can now come to the point we are leaders. We can wait to make sure everyone is okay first, but then we as politicians are also living in the realities” he added.
By Esther Orioye, ACNNTV.
