The Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (
CICAN) has picked holes in the recent
Premium Motor Spirit ( PMS) also
called petrol hike.
It described the upward adjustment
as a pain too much to bear by the Nigerian masses, urging the Federal
Government to involve the Organised
Private Sector in taking decisions on
palliative measures.
Its National Chairman, Mr Charles
Okonji and the Secretary, Mrs Lucy Ekpeyong,conveyed these in a statement
The fuel hike has made it practically impossible for most Nigerians to
transport to their place of work or their
place were they eke out their daily livelihood,it added.
IT noted that the cost of transportation has gone up to the roof top, adding
that most of our people were unable to
move freely again.
The statement added that the high
cost of PMS has further jerked up the
prices of goods and services, making
it very difficult for our people to even
feed twice a day.
” The recent PMS hikes as a result
of subsidy removal has pushed up the
prices of goods and services beyond
the reach of ordinary people.
” Most of our people are unable to
get to their places of work to carryout
their daily business. This will further
drive majority of people into deeper
poverty.
” We hereby on behalf of the Nigerian masses, plead with the Federal
Government to quickly rollout the
palliative it has in the pipeline to ameliorate the serious pains and hardship
our people have been subjected to since
May 30th, 2023,” the CICAN statement
postulated.
It also noted that while the association is delighted about the promise
by the federal government to increase
salaries of workers, adding that the
government should realised that
more than 70 percent of our youths
are unemployed or do not work for the
federal, state government or the local
government.
” CICAN is aware of the promise of
the federal government that it would
soon announce salary increase to ammeloriate the hardship caused by the
PMS subsidy removal.
“We want to remind the government that the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS) reports have stated
that over 50 percent of our youths are
unemployed.
“We also want to inform the government that most of the private companies in particular and the Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in general will not be able to increase their
workers salaries.
“We therefore make bold to say
that most of our people who work in
the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and many private establishments including many media
houses that have not been able to pay
the peanuts for months will not consider the idea of salaries increase for their
workers” the statement noted.
