Residents of Delta State have decried the Federal Government’s decision to increase petrol pump price from N86 to N145 per litre, saying that it would have negative impact on the commoners.
The respondents spoke in an interview with Nigerian Pilot Saturday, in Asaba Friday, lamented that the impact could be severe, and could be difficult for government to guarantee the N145 per litre in a deregulated economy where the dealers on petrol would have to source their dollars.
Speaking on the issue, the former Delta state Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Barrister Raymos Guanah, said it would be difficult for the Federal Government to guarantee the N145 per litre when she had asked fuel importers to source forex from secondary market.
“The FG cannot guarantee the N145 per litre as the importers will sell based on how they got their dollars.
“This action will make the demand for dollar go very high. It will lead to an increase in the price of goods and services and may be a justification for the agitation for increase in salaries. It is the common Nigerians that will bear the brunt,” he emphasised.
Also, a legal practitioner, Frank Esenwah, said that the implications of the pricing policy ranges from spiralling cost of living, inflation, workers’ agitations, and strikes in demand for higher wages.
“It will lead to further descent of the societal weakness into more poverty; stress induced illness and even deaths. Labour layoffs, low productivity are also imminent arising from burdensome wage bills and cost of production,” he said.
He lamented that this was coming at a time most Nigerians were already traumatised from the glaring poor and weak handling of the economy and going comatose.
“We can only hope the imagined benefits of the decision will come up quickly before suicide rates go up,” Esenwah said.
Also, the former Delta state …Read More
Source:: Nigerian Pilot
