A former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has said that the hike in petrol price and electricity tariff is not acceptable in a civilized society.
Fani-Kayode, who lamented that the situation of the country was sad, spoke with journalists at the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The former minister, who said he had inspected some projects of the state government, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to engage those who understand the dynamics of economies to help salvage the Nigerian economy.
He said that he was doing the tour on his own and was glad to do so. He said: “It is important to joggle our memory to know exactly where we are. In 2015 when we had Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Federal Government in power, petrol price was N87 per litre, the Excess Crude Account (ECA) was $2.5 billion, the rate of dollar was N200 to one dollar, a bag of rice was N8,500 and external debt was $9.7 billion. These are facts and verifiable. External debt in 2015 was $7 billion, today, it is $27 billion.
“President Buhari offered an explanation for this particularly in term of food prices, electricity price and so on and so forth. The explanation he offered was the same he gave in 1984 when he was military Head of State. What he said was that these prices were high because of corrupt middlemen. These prices are unacceptable in any civilised society. I am sorry to say that at the time the governments all over the world are offering palliatives to their people to ensure that the effects of COVID-19 are ameliorated, the opposite is the case in Nigeria.
“Even though we have the consequences of COVID-19 and is still with us, we also have economic depression, complete destruction of our economy, hike in food, fuel and electricity prices. Everything has shut up in some cases 100 or 200 per cent. How do you explain that? How do you expect an average income earner and those who don’t have work to afford a bag of rice? So, it’s really a sad situation. I will urge the Federal Government to do far better than it is doing.”