The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria has urged the Federal government to shelve the proposed policy in order not to worsen the hardship and trigger crisis in the country.
The government proposes to pay N5,000 to each of the 40 million poor Nigerians after removal of the subsidy in which a litre of Premium Motor Spirit will cost N340.
The President of PFN, Bishop Wale Oke said removing fuel subsidy will worsen the suffering of the majority of Nigerians who are already impoverished.
In a statement issued on Sunday, he explained that the implementation of the policy would lead to hike in the price of fuel and this would have a ripple effect on prices of goods and services.
This is as Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna state, Rev. Joseph John Hayab said that the present administration has always come up with policies and programmes that can only benefit those in their cycle.
Oke warned that the implementation of such policy would increase the hardship currently being experienced by the people of the country.
The clergyman said prices of foodstuffs and other daily needs were increasingly going out of reach of the people, noting that if the proposed subsidy removal was effected, it would exacerbate the hardship of the people of the nation.
The PFN President further said the situation in the country was very bad because of the steady decline in the purchasing power of Nigerians as a result of the continuous fall in the value of the nation’s currency.
The statement read, “Everybody will feel it, particularly the less privileged. The negative effects will surely outweigh the positive.
“The cost of transportation for human and goods across the country will skyrocket and other things connected which will have a spiral effect on general living standard of the populace; the suffering will be multi-dimensional. Please let all stakeholders be sensitive to this avoidable path and do the needful.
“By whatever means, let the Federal Government put its heart into ensuring that our refineries are back to life. In addition, in order to stem the rising cost of living, farmers and others connected to them should be encouraged. This is what can help our economy.”
He said the PFN would always support policies that would enhance good governance, but charged the government to this effect to put in place tangible palliative measures that could ameliorate the hardship being experienced.
He said, “Without begging the issue, there should be well defined palliative measures in place that can cushion the effect of the hardship being experienced by Nigerians, especially the commoners. One is not talking about political palliatives that never last. We have seen enough of such.
“An increase in the price of petroleum from its present N165 to N340 per litre can trigger tension and crises in the country which in turn can paralyse our economy if not handled with utmost care.
“Again, the planned introduction of N5,000 for 40 million poor Nigerians is to create a cesspool of corruption. How do you define the poor? They, mostly, don’t use telephones. They, mostly, don’t have bank accounts. How will the money get to them?”
Oke advised the government to be wary of policies that could jeopardize the conduct of the 2023 general elections, insisting that all hands must be geared towards steering the wheel of the country to safety.
As a panacea to the rising cost of food items, the PFN President advised that farmers and relevant stakeholders should be empowered with relevant tools and funds through loans with little interest.
Oke, who is also the presiding Bishop of The Sword of the Spirit Ministries, implored the government not to relent in its efforts at ensuring that security challenges in the country become a thing of the past.
Recall that the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed had said that the N5,000 monthly stipend was designed to cushion the negative impact of the removal of the subsidy on the most vulnerable 40 per cent of the population ahead of the target date of mid-2022 for the complete elimination of fuel subsidies.
Nigerians from all walks of life have condemned the proposal and questioned the sincerity of the government that wants to remove the annual fuel subsidy of N1.8 trillion but replace it with N2.4 trillion which it will dole out to 40 million poor Nigerians every month.
