Subsidy removal the beginning of social revolution, says ACF chief

FORMER Kaduna State Military Administrator  and  Secretary General of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), has said that the mass protest against the removal of fuel subsidy is the beginning of social revolution in the country.

Ali spoke yesterday at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Kaduna Secretariat when he appeared as one of the leaders in support of the ongoing nationwide strike and protest against fuel subsidy removal by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Arewa leader said: “This is the moment we have been waiting for, we will carry it through and make sure the removal is reversed or we turn the government upside down. It is sad that Nigerians are meeting on the note of subsidy removal, after all professionals in the field of oil had confirmed to us that there is no fuel subsidy at all, as preached by the government.

“Last year alone, the Nigerian government spent all the money we had in foreign reserve,” saying over N140 billion had been reduced to N36 billion.

He added: “If the government cannot account for that money then how are we going to trust government that the N1.3 trillion that will accrue from the removal of subsidy be judiciously utilised?”

Ali remarked that Nigerians must understand that government was trying to use them to get money to spend, as he queried:  “What has happened to the money that accrued as a result of deregulation of gasoline (diesel) because we have been buying it at N220 to N230, and sometimes N165 to N170.”

While the Arewa Chieftain stressed that government could not account for the money realised from the deal till today, he added that under the existing crisis “government just realised that it has no money and instead of it to cut allowances and reduce recurrent expenses, it decided to hit on the masses.”

He further remarked that Nigerians should know that the time to stop complaining had come and confront the government in order to force them to be accountable to the revenue accruing to the country.

Besides, the President , Civil Rights Congress (CRC), Shehu Sani explained that what was happening “is a prelude to what is about to come soon because the reality is now clear that the removal of fuel  subsidy has united Nigerians irrespective of religious faiths.”

Sani said that it was unfortunate that even when the country was boiling the President left the country, which further showed the level of insensitivity of our leaders in the country.

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By Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna