By: Umunna Kalu

The opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Pro­gressives Congress (APC) over the latest fuel pump price increase, warning that it is a recipe for crisis.

It also described it as a brutal assault on Nigerians.

The party, which said that the increase is a recipe for crisis, also rejected the punishing increase in the pump price of fuel to over N1,000 per litre in various parts of the country.

The PDP said that the devel­opment is a brutal assault on the sensibility and wellbeing of Nigerians by the insensitive and arrogant APC administration.

PDP, in a statement released to the media by its spokesman, Hon. Debo Ologu­nagba, said that the thoughtless increase in fuel price especially at this time, is a huge recipe for crisis as Nigerians cannot bear its worsening effect on the suffocating economic hardship which they currently face under the President Bola Ahmed Tinu­bu-led APC administration.

The statement reads in part “”The secretive and corrupt administration of the petroleum sector and persistent increase in fuel price under the Tinubu-ad­ministration without due regard to the wellbeing of the people is akin to pushing Nigerians to the wall and daring them to do their worse.

“The APC administration has consistently shown itself to be anti-people, unconcerned and deaf to the agonies of millions of Nigerians who can no longer afford their daily meals, medica­tions and basic support for fami­lies due to the catastrophic high cost of living occasioned by the insensitive and reckless policies of the Tinubu administration.

“Today, under the Tinubu-led APC administration over 150 million Nigerians have sunk below poverty line, businesses are collapsing daily as the naira now exchange for over N1,600 to a dollar with over 34% inflation rate and over 40% unemployment rate which are expected to rise further with the latest draconian increase in the price of fuel,” .

PDP added that there’s prac­tically no hope in sight under the current APC government policies as major multi-national companies continue to exit the country in droves in the face of ill-conceived and ill-implemented macro-economic policies.

“The admission by the APC-led Federal Government that it has handed the fate of Nigerians to oil racketeers in the name of free market economy further validates the position of the PDP that the Tinubu-led administra­tion has abdicated the primary purpose of government; which is to provide for the welfare and security of the citizens.

“President Tinubu is the Min­ister of Petroleum Resources and cannot exonerate his government and officials from the secretive and fraudulent management of the petroleum sector which is fast pushing our nation’s economy to the precipice.

“Moreover, it is inexplicable that the APC administration continues to increase fuel price despite the scandalous revelation in the public domain that it is se­cretly paying a whopping N5.4 trillion as fuel subsidy for 2024,” the party said.

PDP said that the APC gov­ernment has now become an enabler of a cabal of corrupt APC rent-seekers who apparent­ly derive pleasure in inflicting pains on Nigerians while hugely benefiting from the proceeds of incessant increase in fuel price to satisfy and fund their luxury appetite and consumption.

“With the hopeless state of affairs of our nation today, our party wonders what President Tinubu, during his numerous trips abroad, says to his foreign counterparts in nations where leaders prioritise the welfare of their people!

“Nigerians will recall that the PDP had on several occasions offered constructive advice and suggestions on the management of the economy which the APC government in its arrogance in failure ignored.

“Our party restates that with a deft, transparent and innovative management of resources, eco­nomic potentials, comparative advantage and national refining capacity, petrol should not sell more than N250 per litre in Nige­ria,” PDP said.

The PDP called on President Tinubu to save the country from further socio-economic disloca­tion by immediately reversing the latest provocative increase in fuel price and revisit all life-dis­counting and suffocating policies of the APC government.