The lawmaker who represented Kaduna Central at the 8th National Assembly, Senator Shehu Sani, and President of the Nigerian Baptist Conference, Reverend Israel Akanji, on Wednesday called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately intervene over the hike in fuel prices in the country that has impacted negatively on the welfare of Nigerians.

They made the appeal while fielding questions from journalists at the 64th Baptist Ministers Conference, 2024, tagged: “The Necessity of Sound Doctrines in a Time Like This,” held in Kaduna.

The Baptist President lamented that the country was facing serious economic challenges, saying that to forge ahead as a nation, Nigerians must make some sacrifices.

According to him, the problem Nigerians have to make now is the suddenness of the sacrifice that has to be made. Things dropped too sharply, and Nigerians are crying out. We’re not saying that the government is doing nothing, but we’re appealing to the government to program the various steps that will be taken so that it won’t be too heavy on its citizens.

“The government must work on the area of transportation, and this is because fuel has been too expensive, and something has to be done,” he said.

He explained that if fuel goes down, prices of commodities, including house rents and school fees, will go down.

“I am a proprietor of a university. If you know how much we have to pay for diesel, the university can hardly function in this situation.

“Things are too expensive, and we need government intervention, noting that if they can do it in the fuel area, that will help the masses,” he said.

Besides, the ex-lawmaker, Senator Sani, said there was no doubt that Nigerians are suffering, and it is difficult to feed their families, provide medical care, educate their families, and even transport themselves, saying this was not just a product of economic reform but was a result of the things Nigerians refused to do in the past.

“All nations that are going through a transformation process must undergo a period of pain and sacrifices, but sacrifices must not be from the poor people; people in positions of power must be seen to be making sacrifices.

“We’re a nation of 224 million people, the biggest black nation in the whole world, and in reality, we cannot shy away from the serious economic challenges that the masses are facing.

“The President, the minister, the governors, senators, and people within positions of authority and power must make sacrifices; that’s how we can make this nation move forward,” Shehu Sani added.

While commenting on governance in Kaduna State, Sani observed that the wrongs that were done from 2015 to 2019 are receiving necessary attention from the current administration of Governor Uba Sani.

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He said the Baptist Ministers Conference offers the citizens the opportunity to make their contributions towards the peace, unity, and collective progress of the country.

Meanwhile, the former CAN Chairman, Kaduna State, Rev. Joseph Hayab, said everybody can attest to the fact that there is a shift from what the country used to experience regarding the fight against terrorism in the country, adding that the reality is that it is not yet over as long as we’re still experiencing pockets of kidnapping, people being terrorised, killed, and families still struggling to pay huge amounts of ransom.

“The other time, the President in his speech said 300 terrorists have been killed; that shows that these terrorists are more than what we’re thinking. Noting that if we have dislodged 300 and we are still having them in their number, that means if you look at the setting of the military squad, that means they’re many.

“So a lot needs to be done to ensure every terrorist, every person that’s causing Nigerians pain and denying other citizens sleep and even causing them sorrow by losing their loved ones should not be spared,” Hayab stated.

It should be noted that the Baptist Ministers Conference is an annual event that brings all clergies for a refresher course for training and retraining about sound doctrines.