The Executive Governor of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said he is shocked and scared of the Federal Government’s inability to plan and effectively respond to the fuel subsidy removal policy that has further improvised Nigerians, inflicting hardship and suffering on the people.
Speaking in Benin City, the state’s capital, the governor said: “I have always warned. I warned Nigerians during the last May Day this year. I told them that we have come to the end of the road and that the old economic order in Nigeria is gone and we have to come up with a new economic order and stop deceiving ourselves as a nation.
Now the subsidy is gone; the exchange rate is being aligned. The era of free money has almost come to an end. The consequence is that the weakest and most vulnerable in our society, unfortunately, will carry a huge part of the burden of these policies.
I am shocked that people who campaigned around the Country, saying that they will remove subsidies, had no clear plans on what to do after subsidy removal. They don’t know what to do and how to support those who will be victims of subsidy removal.
I am shocked and scared of what we are passing through today where the Government doesn’t seem to have a plan or solution on how to respond to the consequences of the policy measure put in place by their administration.
With the way they have mismanaged our national economy, we have to deal with inflation, between 20 and 25 per cent. It means that the people will feel more pain, especially the weak and vulnerable in the society, particularly our pensioners as whatever they get as their entitlement will do only little for them.”
