By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

NATIONAL President of the Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy, VATLAD, 

and a former Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, governorship candidate in Delta State, Comrade Emmanuel Igbini, has scored President Bola Tinubu wide of the mark on his recent tripartite meeting to tackle the economic problems besetting Nigeria.

Igbini told Saturday Vanguard: “We would have been excited that President Tinubu convened a meeting of a select few patriotic Nigerians, who have proven records of excellence in their chosen fields, and are committed to the progress and development of Nigeria.”

Those who took our economy hostage  

“This is not the case with the tripartite meeting he just convened between government, the business community and labour unions at the Presidential Villa over the sad economic realities in our beloved country, Nigeria.”

“The majority of those invited to this meeting were the same people who have exploited the Nigeria state for their advantage and hijacked our national economy.

 ”The same people who have decided when to make Nigerians hungry, sad,  fed,  and be happy, in gross violation of section 16 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended, which vehemently forbids the concentration of the wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group.

“How can the same persons be trusted to rescue Nigerians from the economic calamity they deliberately plunged them?

Provocative daily hike of petrol products killing the economy

“The cause of the collapse of our national economy that now threatens our national security, peace and order is the unjustified and provocative daily hikes in prices of petroleum products, such as petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, domestic kerosene and cooking gas (LPG).

“These largely determine the rate of foreign exchange that has witnessed free fall in the last few months following the bold and commendable decision by President Tinubu to put an end to the primitive and unpatriotic looting of our national wealth under the guise of payment of fuel subsidy and official double exchange rates. 

“We sadly admit that he has not shown the right idea to address the situation after terminating the petrol subsidy.

Why are Dangote, Warri, and P-H refineries not working?

“We, however, wonder why the Dangote Refinery, which received an estimated six million barrels of crude oil to ease the crisis in the downstream petroleum sector, has still not delivered a litre of any petroleum product to the Nigerian market.

“Rather importers and marketers increase their pump prices, making a mockery of the effort of President Tinubu to bring about the Renewed HOPE to Nigerians.

“In addition, why are the Nigerian Refineries in Warri and Port-Harcourt still not fully back on stream despite assurances given to have them fully in operation,  in January, this year?

“Could this be a deliberate effort to sabotage the effort of Mr President and punish him for daring to put an end to the scam called petroleum subsidy?

“We knew that this would not be allowed to happen so soon by the unpatriotic privileged few Nigerians, who have exploited and benefited enormously from the petrol subsidy scam for many years.

Declare full-scale military war on petrol-terrorists

“It is for this reason we advised President Tinubu, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, to assume the position of substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources to direct full-scale military war against these saboteurs whose actions directly undermine the security and integrity of Nigeria. They are petrol terrorists and he should treat them as such.

“It has also been widely reported by the media and has not been disputed that the majority of owners of banks and top managements of banks operating in Nigeria are also actively involved in the economic and financial calamities that have befallen our country.

“Only recently, the media reported and listed names of banks in Nigeria hoarding huge sums of foreign currencies given to them by the Central Bank of Nigeria to disburse to businesses and Nigerians, who genuinely need them for the good and progress of our country.

Bank owners cannot solve the problem they created

“We also expected President Tinubu at the tripartite meeting to reprimand them, and demand an explanation. We do not expect these bank owners to proffer solutions to the same problems they partake in creating, and have not shown any sign of remorse or change.

“This will amount to adding insult on Nigerians who have been victims of the atrocities of these Nigerian Banks 

“We are, however, encouraged by the fact that at the meeting, President Tinubu sincerely admitted that he and his team are not doing right but wrong in some critical aspects that should bring life back to the economy, and to millions of Nigerians,  who are now daily starving almost to death and living lives of hopelessness.

“His further disclosure that he and his team are looking for additional efforts that might help the downtrodden Nigerians to provide that hope and reassurance that economic recovery is on its way is a confirmation that they have to look outside themselves for workable ideas.

“Indeed, it is also true they have not all the answers. It is a fact that they,  so far,  do not have the right answers to fixing the calamity they inherited. 

Waste of time, scarce resources

“Setting up another Economic Presidential Advisory Committee is a waste of time and scarce resources because the problem is more on the petroleum sector (upstream and downstream). The rot in this sector must be urgently confronted and smoked out because the source of our foreign earnings is majorly expected from the petroleum sector.

Way forward

“To this end, we restate our demand for the immediate scrapping of the so-called Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and amendment of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, to delete all the sections that created and empowered it.

“NNPC must be returned to what it was envisioned to be in line with OPEC’s vision and mission for its member nations that have helped Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirate, UAE, Iran and others to achieve great economic, political and technological advancement and progress that President Tinubu seeks to rush to Qatar to learn from. 

“What is needed is a total overhaul of the management and structure of NNPCL and its subsidiaries; employment and appointment of very patriotic, incorruptible and competent Nigerians to take over the management and operations of the new NNPC.