Majority leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday explained that he was compelled to change his opposition to fuel subsidy removal having seen facts and figures that subsidy on petroleum is no longer sustainable.
He said if subsidy was not removed, Nigeria might experience recession within the next two months.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with his constituents in Lagos, Gbajabiamila who represents Surulere 1 Federal Constituency however urged Nigerians not to lose hope in the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government, saying things would soon get better.
He said Nigeria found itself in the current situation because of the level of loot and theft perpetrated by past government of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Gbajabiamila also pointed out that the strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to call for the reversal of fuel price hike did not succeed because there was no need for it in the first place, saying Labour was duly informed of the situation warranting subsidy removal.
He said, “That is why the planned strike did not work because members of labour knew there was no need to strike, even PDP knows that this was the only thing the government could do. Now the idea belongs to OPEC (Oil Producing Countries), I did a research and found out that all oil producing countries from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, to Bahrain, to Venezuela to Russia have increased their fuel price by 40 per cent since December-January, we were the last”.
The House Leader urged Nigerians to only judge the present administration of Mohmmadu Buhari after his four years in office, saying one year is too short to assess any government.
He said, “Things are very, very difficult today in Nigeria, we must acknowledge that. The question we need to ask ourselves is why? And the answer is very simple. When this government came into power, we knew the situation was bad, we knew the party that was there in the least 16 years had done a lot to destroy our economy. It was when we got there that they saw the books and the fact that everything was empty.
“The kind of rot, the kind of corruption, the kind of theft that Buhari and APC met [are] unprecedented anywhere in the world and that is why the Prime Minister David Cameron recently in London said Nigeria is fantastically corrupt.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday interrogated former Governor of Akwa Ibom State Godswill Akpabio over allegation of financial crimes. Daily Trust gathered that Akpabio honoured the invitation by the anti-graft agency to explain allegations of looting of the state’s funds during his tenure. Sources told our correspondent that Senator Akpabio was being interrogated late yesterday evening at the Abuja head offices of the Commission. He was spotted at the EFFC office in company of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Rickey Tarfa, at about 5:20pm. Akpabio’s arrest yesterday is fallout of the petition by an Abuja-based lawyer and activist, Leo Ekpenyong, who had on June 8 this year petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the EFCC, calling for Senator Akpabio’s probe and accusing him of looting. The petitioner had earlier on Wednesday adopted his petition and provided more details to the anti-graft agency on the allegations against the minority leader of People...
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