From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Over 200 civil society groups under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society Groups Against Poverty in Africa (CoSGAPA), on Tuesday, kicked against the lingering fuel scarcity.
CoSGAPA National Spokesperson of CoSGAPA, Aderonke Adebisi, said it was unacceptable for Nigerians to be queuing to get petroleum products despite plethora of reforms and assurances by the government.
Adebisi described the situation as “man-made scarcity” which is a ploy to stage Nigerians against the government of President Bola Tinubu and to portray him in a bad light before the world.
He called on the government to expose those thwarting the supply of crude oil in order to give the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) a bad name.
He said: “We are really pained and suspect acts of sabotage to the efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reposition and restore Nigeria’s economy.”
He warned that the civil society groups would mobilise their members across the nation for a nationwide protest to press on their demands to stop the lingering fuel scarcity.
“The entire nation is engulfed with this scarcity that had negatively impacted the Naira appreciation, prices of commodities are now beyond the reach of Nigerians including high transport fares, inability to run their businesses, and the people are agitated because nobody is exempted.
“In fact, we have come to see and know about the abysmal performance of some stakeholders in the oil and gas sector as it has become an epicenter of controversy due to the misguided actions of some people .
“The scarcity of fuel, necessitating indiscriminate hike in price across the country is a bitter taste for Nigerians to swallow.
“President Tinubu has indeed distinguished himself as man who truly loves Nigeria, his continued trips across the world to woo international investors to Nigeria can not work with insincere persons, who due to their selfishness has continue to destroy the good image of our dear Nation with your corrupt ways.”