A group, Occupy Nigeria, said it had begun mobilising Nigerians for a peaceful protest in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Thursday, April 14, 2016 over the failure of the Federal Government to address the recurring fuel scarcity in the country.
The co-facilitator of the group, Mr. Livingstone Wechie, said another protest would be organised to express dissatisfaction over the non-availability of electricity amid increased tariff and incessant/fraudulent bank charges on poor Nigerians.
Wechie said in a statement on Friday that the protests would serve as a platform to express the hardship being faced by Nigerians.
He expressed sadness over what he described as lack of economic policy direction by the Federal Government.
Wechie said, “We believe the government has exhibited gross ineptitude and incapacity in its dealings. Thus, it has continued to play the blame game on the past Goodluck Jonathan administration as a cover-up to its failures, which is a betrayal of its promises to Nigerians during the electioneering.
“The protests will help to demand a practical economic policy direction from the Federal Government,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Institute of Management has described the persistent queues at filling stations arising from scarcity of petrol in the country as baptism of fire for the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.
NIM said Kachikwu must come up with sound strategies for the downstream oil sector if he must tackle the challenge of perpetual fuel scarcity.
The President and Chairman of Council, NIM, Prof. Munzali Jibril, stated this on Friday while speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the induction for members of the Executive Conversion Programme organised by the National Defence College in Abuja.
He said, “All that is needed to address this negative situation is good planning. I believe the minister has good intentions, but he is facing a challenge he has never faced before. Working as a senior official in Mobil, he never faced this kind of challenge. But I am sure that after this baptism of fire, he will improve.”
