By John Dike
The Osun Civil Societies Coalition OCSC has given the Federal Government, 7 days altimatum to reverse its decision on Fuel hike or ready to face a mass protest.
The sudden hike in fuel, it said has brought unprecedented hardship to innocent Nigerians .
The OCSC was addressing journalists at a press conference held at the correspondence chapel of the NUJ in Oshogbo.
The Chairman of the Osun Civil Society Coalition Comrade Waheed Lawal warns that failure of the government to roll out palliative capable of cushioning effect of fuel subsidy within the expiration of 7 day ultimatum, that they will mobilized Nigerians for mass protest that will be worse than ENDSARS revolt .
While lamenting on the suffering of Nigerians occasioned by the recent hike on petroleum, Lawal condemned the #8,000 palliative proposed by the federal government which he described as an insult to the sensibility of ordinary Nigerian who could no longer afford two square meal in a day due to hardship caused by subsidy removal.
“Many Nigerians are feeling pinched of economic reform and have complained that politicians have shown no signs of cutting down cost of governance. The Common people have lost confidence in the leadership of political functionaries,” he stated.
According to Lawal many Nigerians are struggling to survive due to subsidy removal saying cost of living is declining everyday with measures to address the suffering of the people .
He said the #30,000 minimum wage by 35.5 percent by the estimation of National Bureau of Statistics has widened the poverty net with over five million people in 2022 .
While lamenting on the hike of transportation across the country, he observed that the current economic realities have sparked calls for government to ease the nation’s cost of living crises and suspend fuel hike for interest of the poor masses .
He called on the government to quickly provide the anticipated palliatives to lessen the impact of the rising trend in prices on economic agents saying Nigerian cannot continued to wait for promise of palliatives.
“We also demand that osun state government to go beyond empathy and promises to roll out measures to make life liveable for the people as several States have done .
“Without no intention of threat ,we want to state categorically that failure to address issued raised ,we shall be leading the people out on the street for a protest and nothing shall deter us till we achieve victory since that seems to be one language that government understand “.
