Former National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, Ralph Nwosu, Wednesday, insisted that President Bola Tinubu was wrong to remove the fuel subsidy, saying the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had shown boldness by declaring that he would reintroduce the policy.
Nwosu lamented that civil servants now sleep at motor parks because they cannot afford the high cost of transportation on their salaries.
He spoke on The Morning Show, an Arise TV programme, saying that since 2023, there had been no indication that Nigeria was being governed.
His words: “When a policy has failed, a policy has failed. And everything Atiku says, or any leader of ADC says, is something that has been, or has been exhaustively discussed, and we put them through different tests.
“That’s how policies are made for a human society. Leadership, any form of leadership, is about people. It’s not about cosmetics. It’s not about machines. It’s not about anything. If your people are not motivated, they cannot produce.
“We are aiming for a very productive economy. And the productive economy that we are going for, our people must be ready for that. And if you know the number of research we are conducting, if you go to Nigerian motor parks, you see that civil servants are now sleeping at the motor parks because, for instance, they cannot come from Nyanya or Karu to the central area every day on their salaries.
“If policies are made for the people, you have to gauge how your people are reacting, how any policy you put in place is affecting your people. And this one was wrong from day one. For us, what is different is that our policy structures are working on a daily basis.
“By the time we roll out, finally, with the clear contract that we will have to sign with the people, you will see that even when we put anything on the ground, we are going to follow up. There will be monitoring, there will be evaluation. That’s what government is made for.
“And everything we do must be aligned with the principal character of ADC, which is the welfare of Nigerian people first. Welfare of people at high level, at the bottom level. A motivated people can change production; a motivated people can work with leaders to make the highest kind of outcome. We are going to reconstruct the economy in a way that will benefit Nigerians.
“Atiku is showing boldness by saying, take this back so that the Nigerian people will breathe. When they breathe, they will collaborate and cooperate with government and their employers to make greater production. What you take from here, you gain a lot more from the other side.
“And the recklessness of the people in power now, I can tell you that, especially since 2023, this country is not being governed. There is no indicator that the country is being governed. Take a walk to the hospitals and see the number of Nigerians that are there. What is that to celebrate, that you are making your people suffer?”
