Coalition Warns against Subsidy Removal, Vows Mass Action

Laleye Dipo in Minna

Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) and its students’ wing in the North-central have warned the federal government against removing subsidy from premium motor spirits (PMS) next year.

The coalition threatened to embark on mass action if the federal government eventually removed fuel subsidy as proposed.

It expressed this resolve in a communique issued after a meeting held at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai Guest House in Minna, Niger State. The communique was signed by CNG’s North-Central Coordinator, Mohammed A. Mohammed

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Ms. Zainab Ahmed had disclosed this at the World Bank Nigeria Development Update in Abuja, noting that between 30 and 40 million poor Nigerians will benefit from this intervention.

The minister had said the final number of beneficiaries would depend on the resources available after the removal of the fuel subsidy.

But in its communique, the coalition vowed to embark on mass action across the federation if the federal government “goes ahead with the implementation of the policy.”

The coalition, also, threatened to sensitise all levels of northern society to support what they called “a sustained resistance move to force the government to immediately rescind the implementation of this unpopular, corrupt and inhuman policy or risk an unprecedented mass action and civil disobedience”

It said: “We reject in its totality, the planned fuel price hike as it will amount to sending majority of Nigerians, especially in the north who are already on “life support machine” due to the current hardship to their early graves.”

“The reasons the federal government gave for the planned increase in fuel price are traceable only to inept and insensitive leadership at the national and state levels.

“The plan to hike the fuel price in the face of the ongoing intractable challenges to security of life and property in the country, especially in the north, represents act of hostility against the people by the leaders who have the responsibility to protect them.”

The communique argued that the excuse given by the government and its cronies for the planned removal of the fuel subsidy and the promise of N5, 000 palliative to 40 million vulnerable Nigerians “is unfounded lies unwarranted, fake, impracticable, ill-intended and unacceptable disgusting.”