Akeredolu urges Buhari to quickly resolve naira and fuel scarcity, warns on ‘unpleasant consequences’
The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Friday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to find an urgent solution to the fuel scarcity and naira scarcity in the country.
Nigerians had in the last few days trooped to banks and Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) stands across the country in a bid to get cash for their daily needs.
Many people are still struggling to get cash in banks and other platforms including ATMs and Point of Sale (PoS) outlets despite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive for commercial banks to pay the currency notes to customers across the counter.
The prolonged fuel scarcity has caused unease in the country with long queues in filling stations now a common feature in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and other major cities.
The president during a meeting with the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors at the State House, Abuja, on Friday promised to resolve the scarcity of the naira notes within seven days.
However, in a statement on Friday in Akure, Akeredolu urged the president to act quickly on the fuel crisis and naira scarcity, warning that the current situation was a recipe for unpleasant consequences if not effectively addressed.
The statement read: “The struggles and actual fights recorded in banking halls, ATM and POS points, and markets across the country are disquieting. The choice of this period for the implementation of a policy, which bears an instant negative impact with no discernible mitigation in sight, raises serious suspicion of partisanship on the part of the CBN.
“The ordinary people are the victims. Depositors can no longer access their monies even to feed their families. Hunger is not the anticipated result of a monetary policy.
“While no reasonable person will contend with the decision of the CBN to discharge its statutory functions, the plight of the downtrodden must, however, be considered. The majority of Nigerians groan, at present, under the crushing weight of these crises.
“There is pervasive discontent in the land and unless some urgent redemptive steps are taken to ameliorate the debilitating effects of seeming desultory and nonchalant disruptions of their normal simple lives, a series of events with unpleasant consequences is inevitable.
“There is palpable anger engendered by frustration in the land. The wave of discontent increases with unbelievable rapidity across the country. The current hardship being experienced by ordinary people forebodes unpleasant consequences. These crises may set in motion a chain of events the end of which is better imagined.
“The Federal Government must make a categorical pronouncement on the availability of petrol and its price since it is the general belief that the country still pays humongous amounts as subsidy. A situation which permits a few individuals to inflict pains on the populace, seemingly without check, is deplorable.”
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