CPC Chieftain Canvasses Support For Deregulation

A chieftain of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Mr Dennis Aghanya, has urged Nigerians to support the Federal Government’s policy to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

Aghanya made the call in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, yesterday.

He said that Nigerians should see the Federal Government’s decision to remove fuel subsidy as critical to addressing the corruption in the oil industry.

“The truth is that the government treasury is overwhelmed by the greed and corruption of a cartel in the industry. The government does not want to be weighed down further by this major challenge. This is the time to address the obvious and self-confessed limitations of government, rather than insist that it must do what it has demonstrated that it cannot do,” he added.

“It therefore behoves on us to lend our voices as part of our duty to ensure peace, stability and the corporate existence of our beloved country, even when our programmes and manifesto as a political party differ in this regard with this administration.

“We must move forward as a nation against all negative predictions. We plead that rather than allow a tsetse fly suck us to death; we should strike it dead and feel the pains once and for all,” Aghanya said.

He said because he is in the opposition, his stance might sound strange to Nigerians, but that the removal of fuel subsidy would in the long run be in the interest of the country.

He added that the removal of fuel subsidy would also free the country from the claws of the cartel that had held it down over the years. “We agree totally with Nigerians that it is a bitter pill to swallow, let’s hope and pray that it cures our collective ailment once and for all,” Aghanya said.

He, however, said that for the Federal Government to get the full support of all Nigerians on the deregulation policy of the downstream sector, it should demonstrate integrity and credibility.

This, he said, was necessary to douse the cynicism that was “the trademark” of previous administrations.

He said that government should ensure that another cartel did not emerge in the management of accruable gains from the removal of fuel subsidy.

He called on government to consider an upward review of minimum wage for civil servants across the country as a palliative measure to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.

Aghanya urged government to intervene to curb multiple taxations by local government administrations across the federation.

This, he noted, would ensure the survival of small scale businesses in the present economic situation.