ASUU has threatened to mobilise Nigerians to the streets to protest
against the proposed removal of oil subsidy by the Federal Government of
Nigeria.
Dr Ademola Aremu, chairman of ASUU, while speaking at a symposium
organised by ASUU on the proposed subsidy removal, which took place at
the Institute of African Studies, on Friday, said the union rejected the
proposal entirely.
DR. Aremu, who joined other discussants, including Professors Isaac
Albert, Tam David West, Kassey Garba and Adeola Adenikinju, said
Nigerians were fed up with the injustices in the government and would be
forced to react in the best way they can.
“Is any refinery working in Nigeria despite all the monies spent and
appropriated for turn around maintenance? I am not a prophet of doom but
after Boko Haram, another group will still emerge because we are fed up
with this system.
“The system is full of injustices and as long as injustices exist in
the country, people will continue to react in the best way they can,
through deep seated grievances,” he said
Professor Tam David-West, who described the proposed removal as sanctified falsehood, said Nigerians must go to the streets.
“They must not do it and if they do it, we must all go to the street.
People should not stay at home. Oil subsidy is a sanctified falsehood,
absolute lies,” he said.
While challenging President Goodluck Jonathan, Minister of Finance,
Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her petroleum counterpart, Mrs Alison
Maduekwe, to prove him wrong, the former minister wondered how Jonathan
stood on the way of the people.
‘He is saying there is no going back on oil subsidy. I say no, he
will go back. It is a lie to say Nigerians are paying the least oil
price in the world. Going by their analysis, Nigerian workers should be
earning about N184,000 to be at par with their mates in the United
States.
“They have killed refineries through sabotage. You are asking the
masses to pay for your inaction and to tighten their belt because their
waist is loose, while you grow belly and cheeks in Abuja,” he said.
Professor Isaac Albert, Director of the Institute of African Studies,
noted that Nigerian leaders were deceptive and living in self denial of
reality, lamenting that the country was collapsing.
He wondered why leaders would want to make life more difficult for
the downtrodden while government in Algeria had stopped taxing people
for fear of revolution.
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