call for transparency, accountability
Nigerians at a national discussion on the impact of fuel subsidy removal in Abuja on Thursday said that hardship and suffering have increased across the country, they added that many are dying owing to exacerbating effect of the policy.
On that note, the Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Centre For Transparency Advocacy (CTA), called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal government to urgently setup mechanisms to engage stakeholders in view to finding workable solutions that would mitigate the hardships trailing the removal of subsidy.
Executive Director CTA, Faith Nwadishi, made the call and went on to say that the hasty nature of the removal of fuel subsidy is already impacting negatively on Nigerians because of the inability of many people to meet up with the high increase in transportation, goods, services and other basic needs needed for survival.
She said in the spirit of transparency, accountability and citizen participation, it is now imperative for government and the political class to engage the people whom they have vowed to serve, to find out their specific problems, needs and how best they could be addressed, as the voices of those directly affected by the subsidy removal must be heard and considered.
She said: “The decision to remove fuel subsidy has had significant implications on the lives of our fellow citizens. It has resulted in increased costs of living, affecting transportation, essential goods, and services. As we gather here today, it is imperative that we recognize the urgency of coming up with sustainable recommendations to mitigate the hardships faced by vulnerable groups in our society.
“This time is the time the political class should go back to the people and find out what exactly the people need so they can also input into their programmes. The removal of subsidy has actually disrupted a lot of development that we have so political persons who already have plans within their constituency and development plans should go back to the drawing table and ensure that they engage even members of their political parties and the other constituencies they represent because at the end of the day if you come up with a solution that is not people-centric, that people have not made input into it we will just be going round and round and doing things as usual.
“This time we need evidence-based solutions, we need people’s input, we need inclusivity. For instance, a lot of people think this thing affects only people in the community but those in the urban areas are affected.”
Nwadishi noted that a lot of families were unable to afford the transportation cost of taking their children to school as well as fueling their cars and other transportation means used for business.
“These are real-life situations and that is why politicians and political parties must engage the people, we must do it differently, we shouldn’t wait until there is an election before we start giving false promises and false hopes. This is the time to get the people’s advice so that when you are going in for an election you will know what you are going in for.
“We have always called for the removal of subsidy. Before the elections, we engaged the presidential candidates and all of them at one point or the other made a commitment to removing the fuel subsidy but the how was never addressed.
“Now we have a government that came in and just announced the removal of subsidy so now that it has happened like that we are not waiting till the next elections. It is something that is urgent and we must tackle it urgently. People are dying, there is suffering in the land, we need to look at the people, bring them in, gift engage the people let them give you solutions on how to go about this and put it.”