The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) on Thursday described Nigeria as a sinking ship, regretting that it is happening under the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
CUPP made the assertion in Abuja in reaction to recent developments in the nation’s energy sector, where the pump price of fuel has been hiked above N1000.
National Spokesperson of CUPP, Comrade Mark Adebayo while addressing the press, criticised the persistent fuel price hike and developments trailing the Local Government elections in Rivers State, saying the masses are beginning to bear the brunt of these actions.
He said CUPP as a patriotic and responsible opposition Coalition, has a mandate to interrogate the socioeconomic and political status of our dear country and speak truth to power in defence of justice, democracy and in the overall interests of the country.
“To start with, less than 24 hours ago, inspite of the harrowing economic conditions of the country orchestrated by the atrocious economic policies of the Tinubu administration, the pump price of fuel was again increased to over N1000 per liter,” he said.
“In less than one and half years of the Tinubu administration, fuel prices have been increased by over 2000% which has exponentially increased poverty, hunger and general suffering of Nigerians as persistently unleashed on us by a totally insensitive and wicked administration. This is not the Nigeria we envisaged at the return of democracy in 1999.”
While carpeting the policies of the government, Comrade Adebayo said the Federal Government merely pays lip service to local government autonomy whilst in practice it is working actively to undermine the autonomy and stability of local governments across the country.
He said Nigerians are all living witnesses to the carnage and reckless violence unleashed on Rivers State people last Saturday during the recently held local government election in that state.
According to him, that act of bringandage is not only reprehensible but outrightly criminal and terroristic in nature. What happened there was tantamount to state-sponsored terrorism.
He said, “What they failed to achieve by bullets and bombs in Rivers State, they are trying to achieve by other means in Lagos state and to extend it, systematically, to other states.
“The whole idea is to cripple local government administration and turn it into the errand organ of the FederalGovernment. There is a deliberate, systematic onslaught against Local Government autonomy by this pretentious Tinubu administration.”
National Secretary of CUPP, Chief Peter Ameh corroborated Adebayo saying Tinubu was too hasty with the removal of fuel subsidy immediately he became President.
He went on to say what Nigerians are suffering from today is the effect of that initial pronouncement of subsidy gone.
Ameh said, “there have been several times we have advised the Federal Government, when he was coming in he has not even checked the system to know what is going on and he said the subsidy was gone, that is what is causing this untold hardship, increasing transportation cost by over 700 percent.
“Talking about transport, it dovetails into every sector of the economy, the cost of goods and services, farm products inflation has increased to over 40 percent, we don’t know what inflation will become following this latest increase.”
