Planned Subsidy Removal: Ex-Governorship Aspirant Chides Govt

Former governor aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Oyo State, Babajide Ayoade, has said the removal of petroleum subsidy will worsen Nigeria’s economy and bring unimaginable hardship on innocent Nigerians. He said the decision is ill-timed, not well-thought out and badly-intentioned.

Ayoade, in a press statement, said: “The inflationary trend of the economy and continued slip of the naira behind the dollar has already depleted disposable income of Nigerians and imposing more pains only smacks of the insensitivity of government.”

He, therefore, challenged government to fix the country’s refineries, tackle the ‘deep-seated’ corruption in the petroleum sector and reveal to the public the names of the few who benefit from the subsidy racket.

Ayoade also decried the spate of killings by the dreaded Boko Haram sect, adding that the insensitivity and selfishness of the elite class at commanding heights of politics, governance, religion and economy is responsible for the deep injustice felt by the people.

“The Nigerian state is bogged by inability to right the wrongs of the past. Different nationalities have continued to talk about being marginalised while the national questions have never been resolved in a favour of a virile and coherent Nigeria, hence the resort to insurgency and violence against the state,” he said.

The middle-aged businessman lamented the frequent deployment of the military to quell civil unrest in various parts of the country, chiding the government for wrongly using the military while eroding the constitutional responsibility of the police.

Ayoade deplored the ‘lack of visionary and constructive leadership at the top level of the country’s political leadership’, which he described as a circus show.