By Valentine Amanze
Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has carpeted Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari over claim that some Nigerians were deliberately inflicting hardship on the citizens by creating the current fuel scarcity and that he was determined to get to the root of what he described as
“collective blackmail.”
The governor advised the President to “take responsibility and stop blame game for once.”
On the ongoing fuel scarcity President Buhari had said in his New Year Broadcast that “Some of our compatriots chose this period to inflict severe hardship on us all by creating unnecessary fuel scarcity across the country and that …whatever groups that are behind this manipulated hardship will be prevented from doing so again.”
In a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said, “The president should rather take responsibility, apologize to Nigerians and stop blaming others for his failures because apologizing when you are wrong is the hallmark of honest and sincere leaders. What is wrong if he had said sorry to Nigerians who are at the receiving end of his bad policies? But in the case of President Buhari, he will always have someone to blame for his own failure.
“As a military Head of State, he blamed former President Shehu Shagari’s government. Since he assumed office, he has been blaming his
predecessor. And now that he can’t provide fuel for Nigerians, despite claiming to have removed fuel subsidy, he is blaming some unknown
Nigerians. When is he going to be man enough to stop his blame game?”
The governor said rather than blaming people, what Nigerians expected to hear from the President was what had been done and being done to stop the loss of millions of jobs and hunger that is ravaging the land as well as wanton killings going on across the country.
Fayose said, “Nigerians are aware that petrol is scarce across the country because the federal government deliberately reduced supply
since it is only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that is importing the product. This is aimed to forcing increment in pump price from N145 to N185 per litre on Nigerians.”
The governor further said: “The other time, Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, said that the NNPC was bearing the cost of fuel subsidy and not the federal government and we asked; what is the difference between NNPC and the federal government? Who is NNPC and who is federal government? Is NNPC now an autonomous agency of the federal government?
“Nigerians are tired of Buhari’s repetitive speeches and unfulfilled promises. Nigerians are crying that he should give them responsive and
competent cabinet.
“Nigerians want the president to create jobs for the suffering masses and make life more abundant for them.
“As at today, everything is wrong with Nigeria under President Buhari. The country is not secured. Look at the horrific and disheartening
killings in Adamawa, Kaduna, Benue, Borno and Rivers states between yesterday and today. The President is totally not in charge of the country. The cabals only brief him and whatever they tell him is what he accepts. Nigerians want their president to take charge and stop buck passing.
“He should show to Nigerians that he is a changed president by bringing those looters in his government to book.
“President Buhari should gauge public opinion to see that the people are no longer with him. He should listen to Rev. Father Mbaka who used
to be his supporter but has now been telling the truth of how disappointed and frustrated Nigerians are with him.
“People are only tolerating Buhari and counting days and times for them to shove him out of office in disgrace like Mbaka said.”
