By Chioma Onuegbu – Uyo
The Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has expressed disappointment that President Muhammadu Buhari did not provide solutions to Nigeria’s problems in his 60th independence speech presented to Nigerians.
National Chairman of PANDEF and former military administrator of Akwa Ibom State, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga made the assertion yesterday in Uyo.
Nkanga said that the forum had expected that the president would have said far-reaching things to show that his administration was actually determined to change the status quo in issues such as the lopsided appointments and employments, and hike in electricity tariff.
He stressed that the forum would continue to advocate for justice, and good governance in the country, stressing that as long as there is no justice those things would continue.
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His words, “As far as PANDEF is concerned, there is nothing in the speech. Yes, he has mentioned that we are going through many problems, telling us where we are, why we are where are today, that is okay but he has not proferred any solution to them; the speech provided no answers to Nigeria’s problems.
“PANDEF expected that the way things are with us now, he would have said far-reaching things to show that actually, he wants to bring a change to the challenges that are instead of telling us that he is helpless.
“The way he has sited infrastructure, employed and appointed people in his government if I was in his position and did that would he have liked it? There is no way he can defend his administration on that.
“On the issue of fuel pump price, taht6 was a very poor comparison and analysis. I expected that as they mentioned the countries that are selling fuel higher than Nigeria they should have also mentioned the ones selling less than Nigeria. And they should’ve also looked at the prevailing circumstances in those countries, their cost of living and all that.
“Those countries that he mentioned, they have refineries, so they have ways of ploughing back but we are just bringing refined products. So if you don’t subsidize it means the whole weight will be on the citizens.
“And the important thing here is not even the removal of subsidy. When they came into power they had told us that there was no subsidy, that it was all a scam by Jonathan’s administration. Surprisingly just recently they are now admitting that there was a subsidy and that they want to remove the subsidy.
“Perhaps if they had told us the truth from the beginning it wouldn’t have been an issue. So when you put these things together, you see that they are not sincere. But God will see us through”
