Following the cost of living and rising insecurity in Nigeria, senator Ajagunnla Olubiyi, has urged President Bola Tinubu to quickly summon a national stakeholders engagement meeting that will offer lasting solution to the challenges facing the country.
The lawmaker representing Osun Central, praised the President for providing Palliatives to Nigerians, he however wondered why the comfort were not getting to the targeted beneficiaries.
The Peoples Democratic Party Senator stated that as a lawmaker who is close to the people, the crisis in the country has reached a point where all leader have to come together and fixed the problem.
Speaking on his evolution of the state, since the institutions of the new administration, Fadeyi stated, “I would say, it’s dire, and I can confirm that with all sense of responsibility. As representatives of our people, we are closer to the masses at every level, so we feel the peoples plight much more easily than any other politician. Is it the escalating cost of living or growing insecurity or weakening local currency, which invariably worsens inflation or even the biting impact of removal of fuel subsidy.
He further said, “I think, the President need to call for a stakeholders engagement as a matter of urgency, a no- hold convey, non political but straight conversation. A national stakeholder’s hand fast of this nature needs to be led by the President himself. Law points must be agreed at such meeting to address the most urgent problems that face the country at home this time”.
According to the Senator, there is a need to analysis the way both drivers and managers of the Palliatives have been executing the projects, lamenting why they are not achieving the intended results.
The President had in June announced the removal of petrol subsidy during his inauguration speech. The administration also execute an exchange rate merger policy. The two policies seems not working. The administration has pleaded that the hardships will soon be over. However, the situation continues to appear unbearable to Nigerians.
Meanwhile, Fadeyi believes that strong decisions must be taken to save Nigerians from the worsening economic situation.
He said, “To be honest, very courageous decisions may need to be reached, if we must save our men and women from starvation, businesses from shutting down, and unemployment from worsening.
“For instance, if it need reversing the subsidy removal policy, so be it! Why not backward it, and fix the corruption along the supply chain instead? If this happens, this will stuck fall increase in price.
“We all know that energy cost is the most significant cost incurred by any business, regardless of size. Food costs will be reduced, so at least people can eat. The labour unrest will also reduce as the conversation around salary increment would be unnecessary.”
The Harvard Senior Executive Fellow admitted that there were no quick fixes to the problems, as he emphasised the need to take important action to address the challenges.
Fadeyi stated, “There are no quick fixes, no doubt. Some of the inconveniences we are going through did not start overnight, it’s been building up, so you can’t expect any quick results, the present leadership is not going to turn to magicians, but we can keep things from escalating at least and then walk backward from there”.
