An appeal has gone to Nigerians to endure the current economic hardship in order to reap the gains of long term planning and economic discipline in the days to come.
The executive director, Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), Professor Ishaq Akintola who made the appeal yesterday, said deregulation of the oil sector of the Nigerian economy which had been hailed by experts as a wise step must come at a price.
MURIC explained that it has necessitated the determination of prices of petroleum products by global market forces.
It added that this implied that even the Nigerian government could no longer fix the prices of petroleum products and it was not responsible for the latest increase from N488.00 to N617.00.
“The good news is that we have a sensitive administration which has shown concern for the plight of the common man. We have a president who has declared that the poor must not be strangulated by the current hardship. Palliatives are therefore being prepared to ease the pain without which there can be no gain”, it said.
MURIC therefore appealed to Nigerians to patiently, “wait for the palliatives. This hard time is the test of our faith, our patriotism and our resolve to reengineer our destiny as a people. But certainly hard times do not last forever, only patience does.
“Therefore, endurance is our best option now, not demonstrations, not willful destruction of public properties, not looting of shops and businesses belonging to innocent Nigerians. That is one thing we cannot afford to do at this moment.
“More than 16 people have been killed in the last seven days during demonstrations sparked by skyrocketing cost of living and newly imposed taxes in Kenya. France is just heaving a sigh of relief after weeks of violent demonstrations.
“Britain has been recently rocked by similar protests organized by workers, including nurses, doctors and university lecturers. We thought such things could never happen in Britain. These are Western nations which we assumed had reached El-Dorado standard but today we are baffled that they still have gargantuan economic problems and humongous social maladies”.
MURIC appealed to Nigerians to rally behind the Tinubu administration saying, “We have seen the concrete and pragmatic steps which he has taken as he squarely confronts Nigeria’s economic woes.’’
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