Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has lashed out at President Bola Tinubu over the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), fondly called petrol, across Nigeria.
Atiku, in a statement shared on his X account on Thursday, October 10, 2024, called Tinubu ‘T-Pain’.
The Star had reported that the National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and other marketers had, on Wednesday, October 9, increased petrol pump prices at their retail outlets.
The petrol pump price at NNPCL stations in Lagos State and Abuja was increased to N998 per litre and N1,030, respectively, while other marketers were charging more.
Speaking on the petrol price hike, Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, said Tinubu was indifferent to the hardship in Nigeria.
The former Vice President also attributed the economic hardship in the country to “haphazard and disingenuous approach” of Tinubu’s administration to fuel subsidy management.
He stated: “The haphazard and disingenuous approach of the current administration to fuel subsidy management has been the reason we are in this current economic crisis in the country.
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“As things stand, there will be no let up in the escalating inflation rate, which is drowning the material well-being of Nigerians. It is even more worrying that T-pain is undisturbed by the hardship in the country.”
It would be recalled that Tinubu, on inauguration day, May 29, 2023, announced the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
“Subsidy is gone,” Tinubu declared during his inaugural address at Eagle Square in Abuja, shortly after he was sworn in as the 16th President of Nigeria.
Speaking in a national broadcast on the nationwide protest against economic hardship in the country in August 2024, the president described the removal of fuel subsidy as a painful decision by his administration.
He added that he decided to remove fuel subsidy and abolish multiple foreign exchange rates because they had impeded the economic development and progress of the nation.
Before the president announced the subsidy removal, petrol was sold for less than N200 per litre across the country.
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