Business
Subsidy: Youth Leader Canvasses Support For Minister
Nigerians have been urged not to trivialize the issue of fuel subsidy removal but to face it squarely in order to find a lasting solution objectively.
A Port Harcourt based youth activist and President of Niger Delta Upright Port Harcourt, urged Nigerians to critically face the issue at stake rather than pursuing shadows.
Mr Ray George who was visibly angry over calls for the sack of the Petroleum Minister should be singled out for victimisation, adding that the Petroleum Resources Minister, Mrs Alison-Madueke has been in the saddle for just one year, while the issue of fuel subsidy removal has been there for over a decade.
He particularly condemned an on-line journal – Point blank.com for criticising the minister and may not end with her if the issue is handled with a kid glove, and called on those publishing image tarnishing stories against the Minister to stop forthwith.
The youth leader, who poured encomiums on the minister for her achievements in the ministry, particularly the various reforms in the NNPC, the inauguration of the committee to facilitate the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill and many others, and wondered why few Nigerians either for selfish or parochial interest tends to tribalise or sectionalise the issue of subsidy removal.
He descried Mrs Alison-Madueke as a patriotic Nigerian who left her lucrative job as the External Affairs Director of Shell Petroleum Development company to serve her nation, adding that calls for her sack as the minister is the height of ingratitude.
He calls on Nigerians to support the reformation agenda of Mr President and the removal of fuel subsidy, describing it as a sure way of reviving the economy and repositioning the nation for positive development.
He added that deregulation has worked in other sectors like the banking sector, saying that it will also work in the oil sector.