Ex-presidential candidate urges review of fuel subsidy removal

The former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, has joined the stream of well-meaning Nigerians calling on President Bola Tinubu to review the decision to remove fuel subsidy.

Kachikwu, in a state of the nation statement made available to the Guardian in Abuja, maintained that it is unfair subjecting Nigerians to go through the pains associated with the removal of fuel subsidy.

Stating that the problem of fuel subsidy was the fraud associated with the scheme, he asked the government to prosecute all those who abused the scheme, no matter how highly placed in society.

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He also recommended that the government should rejig the fuel subsidy scheme and make it fraud-proof.

He said: “Look at the vexatious issue of subsidy removal. Some sections of the media are now saying all the presidential candidates agreed that subsidy had to go. This is not true.

“God did not make a mistake by depositing oil in our land. The problem of subsidy was the fraud associated with the scheme. I said that we should prosecute all those who abused the scheme, no matter how highly placed in society, and at the same time rejig the scheme and make it fraud-proof. I also said we should suspend it for a few months while all these take place.

“Why should over 200 million Nigerians suffer because of the crime of less than a thousand people? This doesn’t make sense. The President believes that with subsidy gone there is more money for capital projects, but he forgets that in a corrupt society like ours, a lot of that money will be looted.

“We are all also calling on Tinubu; the states and local governments have been getting much more money and they are closer to the people. What are they doing? We don’t want to hear the truth.”

Kachikwu called on President Tinubu to live up to his rating as a true democrat and open-minded politician, as opposed to the pedigree of his predecessor, ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, accused of promoting nepotism and sectionalism while he was at the helm.

He said: “Tinubu won because most of those who voted believed in what he had to offer them. This is the simple truth.

“The funniest thing is that I believe that he could actually succeed if he stops acting like a cowboy. In some of his actions, you can see he is a progressive at heart, but he keeps on scoring own goals with his Emilokan actions.

“The President must understand that he is not President Buhari. If President Buhari was appointing only Northerners into office, you can say he had 20 northern states he was sharing the offices with, but President Tinubu has just six southwest states.

“It is the height of insensitivity and irresponsibility to be seen as appointing only Yoruba into office. As some Nigerians went out to protest, is it only Yoruba policemen and security agents who went out to secure our lives and property? The answer is no.”

Expressing concern over the demise of no fewer than 19 persons protesting against hardship in the country, he called on demonstrators to sheath their swords to avert further bloodshed in the country.

He reminded the protesters of the need to be circumspect, noting that of the 19 victims of the protests, none is the child of any highly placed person in the country.

He also pleaded with those aggrieved with the President Tinubu-led administration to wait for the next presidential election to choose any candidate of their choices.

Calling on President Tinubu to be broad-minded and consult widely instead of running the affairs of the nation alone, he also asked the opposition to proffer solutions to the problems of the country instead of instigating violence and seeking the overthrow of the democratically elected government.

Kachikwu, known for his daily NUGGETS on the state of the nation, faulted the opposition for indulging in abusing Tinubu instead of proffering solutions to the nation’s problems.

He warned against attempting to remove a democratically elected government through the back door.

He said: “We can’t continue killing ourselves. Our streets flow with the blood of the innocent. Over 19 killed in this scam of a protest, all for what? No child of any politician or big man was killed.

“Just the poor, average Nigerian. Only their family members will cry and mourn for them quietly while those who have made billions from this scam laugh to the bank.

“We are witnessing unprecedented hardship right now. The poor can barely eat a meal in two days. Most of us can no longer afford the necessities. The population of the poor is increasing by the minute.

“We as leaders need to come to a table of equity, justice, and fairness to address the plight of the downtrodden immediately. It is not Tinubu’s problem alone and Tinubu must stop acting like he can do it all by himself.

“He must show leadership and reach out across party lines to get the best and the brightest to a solution roundtable. God himself reconciled all men to him through his son Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

“If God knows to reconcile us to him, who are you not to reconcile the aggrieved to you? (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) Our nation needs healing and for this to happen, all Nigerians must come to equity with clean hands and sincerity of purpose.

“We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches will leave on their own. My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us.”

Continuing, he noted: “What of those who lost elections but, like President Trump, they won’t accept the result and move on? This is not a progressive attitude. We can’t burn down our country over elections that have been won and lost.

“The job of the opposition now is to oppose and propose, but what we are doing is only opposing without providing any solutions to our problems. Watch any advanced democracy and see how the opposition behaves. They have their stand and solution on all issues, and they will debate you night and day, but here all we want to do is abuse Tinubu without offering any concrete solutions. This is not leadership.

“Nigerians lost a golden opportunity by not insisting on credible debates. Joe Biden has pulled out of the race because a single debate spotlighted his deficiencies, but here in Nigeria, we don’t care. President Buhari fumbled in all the debates, but he won two elections. His government set us back three decades, but yet we didn’t protest bad governance when he was President.

“We protested SARS arresting so-called Yahoo boys and our youths on trumped-up charges. Who are we deceiving? For how long will we keep on being mediocre about our civic duties?

“If you hate Tinubu so much, then pressure the National Assembly to remove him or wait till the next elections, but heating up the body polity for the last year and attempting to remove a democratically elected government through the back door is no different from a coup.”

On the way forward, he said Nigerians should return to God to reverse the course in the country.

“My dear Nigerians, we must reverse the course. For too long we have followed politicians, men of God, entertainers, or anything that is the latest fad, but never have we as a people agreed to follow God. Who then is our role model of leadership? We can’t continue this blame and hate game,” he said.