Sylvester Ezeokenwa, newly elected National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to re-launch investigation into the fuel subsidy regime in the last 20 to 30 years.
The 38-year-old Ezeokenwa, gave the advise during a chat with newsmen in Lagos.
He assured that the new executive would build APGA “as a progressive party for Nigerians fuelled by the younger generation.”
The Party’s former legal adviser, unveiled the DRIVE project, centring on the Party’s discipline, repositioning, inclusiveness, visibility, and expansion.
According to him, as a youth himself, he was ready to change the perception of APGA as an Igbo and Anambra Party without youth representation.
He furthered that the younger generation would drive the Party’s reform agenda.
The chiairman also emphasized the importance of establishing party supremacy per the party’s constitution, advising political parties to include a code of conduct in their constitutions to instill discipline in party members.
On the nation’s state, the APGA chairman stated that the people expected Tinubu to be a magician and act like one because he recognized the enormity of the challenges confronting the country before deciding to run.
Ezeokenwa also urged Nigerians to support the President in fulfilling his mandate to the people, saying, “We will not fail to call him out if he fails.”
He noted that unless the Tinubu administration re-lunched investigation in to fuel subsidy regime, and those who enriched themselves at the expense of Nigerians are prosecuted, the removal of subsidy would not make meaning.
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“Fuel subsidy is one of the greatest criminal contraptions in Nigeria. Over the years, we have seen the criminalisation of the fuel subsidy regime in Nigeria. President Tinubu should re-lunch investigation into the fuel subsidy regime in the last 20 to 30 years and uncover those who have criminally enriched themselves at the expense of Nigerians, such people should be made to pay back what they stole into the national purse. The poor in Nigeria cannot continue to pay for government’s ineptitude,” he said.
He further said, “Subsidy is what the government offers to the people to alleviate their hardship and it can come in different forms, it must not be only on fuel. Fuel subsidy elicits so much reaction in Nigeria because the price of fuel affects everything we do in the country, whether it is transportation, power generation or small-scale manufacturing.
“President Tinubu should engage with the labour unions because the workers cannot live on the present minimum wage.”
He advised the government to benchmark how much money it has saved from the fuel subsidy removal and what the money was spent on.
“The government should channel the funds saved from subsidy removal into providing the basic infrastructure Nigerians.The government should benchmark how much is being saved from the fuel subsidy removal and what they are spent on. If the government provides the basic needs of the people, good transportation system and road including rails, steady power supply among other things, Nigerians will not be so much bothered abbot the price of fuel.”
