By SAM OTTI
Wednesday, January 04, 2012


Photo:The Sun Publishing
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The Enugu State Co-ordinator of Neighbour2Neighbour Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organization, who worked for the emergence of Jonathan as president, Dr. Chinedu Jideofo-Ogbuagu, has condemned the decision of the Federal Government to remove fuel subsidy.

He described the development as bad luck to the country.
Jideofo-Ogbuagu said: “We laboured and sacrificed greatly for Goodluck during the April 2011 presidential campaign. I lost my brand-new jeep and other valuables worth N17 million and almost lost my life to armed robbery attack at Kogi/Benue border on February 18, as I was taking Jonathan campaign materials from Abuja to Enugu. Eight months later and with Goodluck Jonathan as our president, fuel has jumped from N65 to N200 per litre. Only bad luck could produce such an outrageous and ridiculous price. Was this what I fought and almost died for?”
Also, a renowned Professor of Economics and former vice chancellor of Crescent University, Ogun State, Sherifdeen Tella, has faulted the Federal Government’s decision to remove the subsidy.

In his reaction, Prof. Tella said the decision would spell doom for the nation if allowed to continue because the policy failed to take into consideration the informal sector production unit that depend on petroleum for operation.
Tella, who was also the former Dean, Faculty of Social Science and Management, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), said other sectors that power their operations with small generators would find it hard to survive, which could result to unemployment.

“Unemployment with its attendant social implications as well as inflation should be expected to rise within three months from now,” he said.
Prof. Maduabuchi Dukor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, who described the decision as authoritarian and despotic also expressed similar concerns. He said the policy was an ‘undemocratic action induced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank economic imperialism, which only ends in the empowerment of corruption and corrupt office holders through direct and indirect appropriation of the national wealth and the excess oil revenue’.
Although the current Head of Department of Business Administration, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof. Ezinma Nwadiogwa Nnabuife, hailed the decision because of its long term benefit to the economy. She said the wrong timing of its implementation had imposed suffering on the people.
According to her, the full implementation of the policy had hiked the pump price of fuel and ushered an astronomical increase in transport fares across the country.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2012/jan/04/national-04-01-2012-008.html

Is that not what we have been saying to GEJ