The Federal Lawmaker Representing the Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State Hon. Nkemkanma Kama, has said that the Federal Government’s failure to implement strategies to curb the effects of fuel subsidy before its removal was the cause of hardship in the country.
According to the lawmaker, the federal government should have made plans for the implementation before the removal of the subsidy which has been a monster.
Kama, disclosed this to journalists in Abakaliki as President Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Francis Nwifuru mark one year in office.
“Like I said, one of the greatest things the government did was the removal of the subsidy because it’s a monster actually but I have a problem with the implementation of the removal.
“One, I taught that there shall be a sensitization, the procedure to me is just where I have a problem. I am an advocate of the removal of the fuel subsidy. I thought Buhari would have done that in his regime, we thought that this would have been done a long time ago. By now, this whole thing would have died down, and the effect of it would have gone but unfortunately, he didn’t do it. The President should have planned for the removal, and the effects but we did was that we remove it before we started planning for the effects of it
“This created a vacuum because it’s a big vacuum, we started from Z instead of A and there are other policies being implemented, my problem with some of these things as I have always said is sometimes timing. For instance, we have not finished the effects of the removal of the fuel subsidy and your electricity is a no-go area for anybody now and you are adding a tariff thing. It might be a proper thing to do but timing again is very important
“This is a major problem with some of the policies being implemented but these are the things we need to do for the country to move forward you should also take cognizance of the feelings of the people of the society from there, you step 1, stabilize it, step 2, stabilize it, then you move to step 3 gradually. There should be a stabilization, you can’t add fuel to a burning fire,” he said.
The lawmaker also urged the federal government to reduce the taxing of people and seek ways to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy to end hardship.
“Like the tariff thing, I stood up and talked about it and the House is looking at it, a whole lot is going on actually. When I raised the motion on the electricity Tariff, the Orasanya report, the committee looked at it and advised the government and told the government look, this is not the will of the people, it doesn’t augur well. Remember, when they brought up the security levy thing, nobody knew how it died, nobody knew how the President woke up and said stop it.
“The country is going through so much right now, so taxing the people the more is probably not the right way now. Rather, they should try and see a way to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal, we have not recovered from the subsidy removal and then the floating of the naira somehow. All these are part of the things that have almost affected everything that we are doing. But you know sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. If the policies being implemented are followed to the later without sabotage, if the intentions are genuine for the people, I believe things will change,” he said
Speaking on his closeness with the APC government in the State the lawmaker said “People have been talking about my closeness with the APC and everything, it’s interesting actually. I want to give you a little background so that it will guide you. First and foremost, am an APC person in the first instance. I want us to understand that I came from APC. I was in APC, there was no division between me and APC and I never quarrelled with APC, I never had an issue with APC, I had no issues with the APC whatsoever in the first instance.
“So, there is no way when there is nothing broken to be parting. I just woke up one day and decided to run an election on a different platform, it doesn’t affect my relationship with where I am coming from and it shouldn’t affect my relationship with where I am coming from. So my closeness to APC, to me is a great advantage for us. The most important thing it has done is that you have never heard of any clashes in Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo federal constituency because of party differences and everything. During our Christmas palliative, we called everybody as long as you are from Ohaozara, Onicha and Ivo federal constituency, you took part.
“So, there was no division to say you are from PDP, APC and all that. So, as I said, it doesn’t matter whether you are APC or whatever, I am in tandem, my own unity in my constituency to make sure that everything goes well. People talking about APC this, APC that, it doesn’t come up.”
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