Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has berated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the sudden fuel price hike in the price of petrol which he approved from the comfort of his annual vacation in London, United Kingdom (UK).
President Tinubu, Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum, who has now headed for France from London, approved the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) raise of 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.
Though the price hike has triggered negative reactions among Nigerians who asked Tinubu to work towards reversing it, the Federal Government, through the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, 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.”
According to Obi: “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.