By Tayo Joseph Lagos
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Muhammadu
Buhari to save Nigerians the trauma of sleeping in fuel stations by
quitting as Minister of Petroleum Resources and allowing competent hands
to manage its affairs.
The party described as unpardonable, the failure of the Buhari
Presidency to resolve its inflicted unabated fuel crisis, which has
brought untold hardship to Nigerians.
It said President Buhari, as Minister of Petroleum, must directly accept
responsibility for the manifest failure in the oil sector, even as his
government should be held responsible for the exacerbated economic and
security situation in the country under its watch.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement on
Sunday, said it is disheartening that instead of being remorseful for
its failures, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled Federal
Government is busy dishing out lies and fabricated indices in an attempt
to give Nigerians false hope on issues related to the fuel crisis and
the collapsing national economy.
The PDP said if President Buhari had heed wise counsel from well-meaning
Nigerians, since last year, to quit office as the minister of Petroleum
and allow a more competent and knowledgeable person to run the ministry,
the situation would not have degenerated to excruciating pains Nigerians
suffer today.
The party said the fact that the Presidency has unapologetically failed
to fix a national problem, which it last December promised to resolve
within one week, shows it has no solution but intends to continue to
hold the nation to ransom.
According to the PDP, the fact that there are inherent poor
coordination, inefficiency and reported heavy sleazes in a sector that
is under the direct supervision of the President, raises a lot of issues
and speaks volumes of the evident mismanagement of the system for which
the economy is now in complete shambles.
It is an appalling height of insensitivity that the President, as the
Minister of Petroleum Resources, has failed to take any decisive steps
to arrest the situation, which has remained unabated since the last
Yuletide.
Rather, the sector has been delivered to an APC cabal, whose mission,
particularly, the desperate re-election bid, largely account for the
biting fuel situation and the economic misery Nigerians suffer today.
It is instructive to state that the Presidency has refused to offer any
explanation on the allegations linking the fuel crisis to the exposed
siphoning of billions of naira through shady oil subsidy deals and the
illegal lifting of crude oil worth trillions of naira, ostensibly to
service APC interests ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The point is that owing to the ineptitude of the Buhari Presidency and
the desperation to remain in power, millions of Nigerians are
languishing.
As we speak, the economy has further dipped in the last two months of
this harrowing fuel situation; more businesses have folded up, prices of
essential goods are skyrocketing and families are, more than ever
before, under intense pressure of meeting economic demands.
Currently, marauders have chased farmers away from farmlands while
Buhari Presidency continue to wax lip sermons on serious issues of
insecurity.
We call on President Buhari to quit this all important ministry of
petroleum resources and allow competent hands to save our people from
the anguish and pains they have been subjected to in the last few
months.
