Make Your Position on Fuel Subsidy Public, Group Urges Tinubu, Atiku, Obi
Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
The Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) has called on political parties and their presidential candidates including Mr. Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of Labour Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and others to make their stands known on the issue of fuel subsidy as campaign officially commenced.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as provided by Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 officially lifted the ban on political campaigns on Wednesday.
The Executive Director of CTA, Ms. Faith Nwadishi, while addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, said as the country moves into the campaign period, it was expected that the political atmosphere would be charged.
She noted that it was imperative therefore, that political parties make their campaigns issue-based and convince Nigerians to vote for their candidates based on sound proposals of alternative solutions to the issues that are of utmost concern to Nigerians.
Nwadishi called on the political parties and their candidates to tell Nigerians in realistic terms how they intend to end insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other criminalities, adding that citizens are eager to know the solutions that political parties are proffering to the lingering security challenges.
The Executive Director pointed out that Nigeria was a major producer of crude oil and gas that should ordinarily translate to economic blessing and energy boost, however, this year alone, the National grid has failed about seven times subjecting Nigerians to darkness.
She stated: “Political parties should consider and in fact include discussions on fuel subsidy and domestic consumption of fuel in their campaigns. Our task is that political parties and their candidates should tell Nigerians how they will cushion the effect of high energy cost, whether fuel subsidy will stay or go and how they will provide renewable energy options since that is where the world is going now.”
Nwadishi said it was sad that Nigerian university students have been kept at home for over seven months due to the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
She stressed that within this period, other unions at tertiary institutions had embarked on strike actions that are inimical to the education system in Nigeria.
Against this background, Nwadishi was of the opinion that political parties and their candidates should make it a point to tell Nigerians how they would mitigate the protracted strikes in the education system and other rots bedevilling the Nigerian education sector from the primary to tertiary levels.
Nwadishi further urged political parties, candidates, and their supporters to operate within the confines of the law and the provisions of INEC and regulations.
She said the CTA would be tracking election campaign promises and would be giving an update periodically to hold political office holders to hold them accountable.
