The Democratic Front (TDF) has described the proposition of N250 per litre as price for fuel by the Peoples Democratic Party PDP as a mockery of national sensibility.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Mallam Danjuma Muhammad and Secretary, Chief Wale Adedayo, the group said the party’s proposal of N250 a litre for locally refined fuel is a reflection of the extent it could go to play politics.
The statement read in part: “In strong terms, we condemn the statement credited to the the National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Debo Ologunagba, wrongfully alleging that the policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu were draconian and bringing Nigerians on their knees.
“We consider the statement as reckless, careless, and irresponsible, because it mocks and insults the sensibility of Nigerians in view of the pillaging and devastation of the nation’s economy by the former ruling party through monumental embezzlement and misappropriation of national resources. The despoil and waste that the PDP erected was the edifice of economic woes and hardship that the current administration is trying to correct.
“It is important to inform Mr. Ologunagba and his paymasters that the economic reforms of President Tinubu are not responsible for the hardship Nigerians are faced with, rather, the 16 wasteful years of the PDP during which $16 billion dollars, amongst others, was filtered away on elusive power supply.
“There is also the corrupt ring-fencing of several state- owned companies and investments by PDP stalwarts, in a dubious privatization exercise that bloated Nigeria’s unemployment market to an alarming level, as well as the total neglect of critical infrastructures at the expense of productivity and economic prosperity.
“History holds that three PDP-led administrations had the benefit of selling crude oil more than any other Nigerian government, at various times of global oil boom with high and favourable market price.
“Unfortunately, the former ruling party did not use the tremendous revenue from crude oil sale to address the nation’s poverty, invest in agriculture, or even improve the country’s infrastructural deficit.
“For the entire period of 16 years that the party held the saddle of political leadership in Nigeria, state-owned refineries were in comatose and were allowed to corrode under a system that reeks of pervasive corruption.
“It is public knowledge that Nigeria lost trillions of naira in series of Turn Around Maintenances (TAM), deliberately designed by the PDP to entrench the wasteful habit of importation of petroleum products into Nigeria, with untold consequences on our foreign exchange earnings.
“Till date, Nigerians have yet to know the truth about the $ 20 billion that NNPC failed to remit to the Central Bank of Nigeria under the last PDP regime, a revelation which cost Sanusi Lamido Sanusi his job as Governor of the Central Bank at the time.
“The racket of subsidy regime under the PDP was so rife in reflating subsidy figures to consume the Nigeria’s oil proceeds, to the extent that the party left almost two years of subsidy arrears unpaid.
“The Muhammadu Buhari led APC administration eventually paid over N500bn as subsidy to fuel importers, for petroleum products supply to resume in August 2015.
“Even though the price of petroleum/litre was relatively low under the PDP, Nigerians suffered from the agonizing impact of acute shortage of petroleum products throughout the period.
“PDP’s legacy of electoral fraud and political corruption was legendary. It stagnated economic growth in the country and subjected Nigerians to the evil of bad governance at all tiers. The party is known to have exploited the power of incumbency to rig every election for its candidates in a brazen breach and disregard for the Electoral Act and the Constitution.
Debo Ologunagba and his colleagues in PDP should be informed that these are the factors absolutely responsible for the hardship Nigerians face today.
“The evolution of hike in fuel price in Nigeria from 1973 shows that the PDP- era recorded the most hike of ten consecutive times. The same political party now finds the impudence to mock the nation’s sensibility by criticizing the Tinubu administration on a market forces- influenced increase in the pump price. This is unacceptable.
“What could be more laughable as the party’s recent proposal of N250/litre of petroleum products, which literally exposed its hypocrisy and paucity of knowledge about the country’s oil sector.”
TDF urges Nigerians to ignore the PDP and what it describes as its archaic antics to grab power at all costs.
