By Ralph Chris-Izokpu
The Young Progressives Party, YPP, has called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps towards addressing the sufferings of Nigerians.
The National Chairman of YPP, Bishop Amakiri made the call in an interview with journalists during a peaceful protest and advocacy walk for good governance on Tuesday in Abuja.
Amakiri said, “We are not here to antagonize any government, but render to set the record straight that Nigeria is a country where all of us belong to and as people who are just coming out of the dread coronavirus pandemic to be faced with a hike in electricity tariff and fuel price in just a week. So, we therefore, demand the reduction in the following, in the cost of governance, reduction in fuel price and electricity tariff, transparency and accountability, electoral reform and restructuring. The time is now.”
The national chairman said, as a political party, “We are not just established just for the purpose of electioneering purpose alone. We are established to speak on behalf of the people and that is why are an opposition, like PDP is not the only opposition in Nigeria.
“We all know the situation we have found ourselves currently and it is important that, as an opposition political party and government in waiting, we don’t need to wait until we get into government before we can speak on behalf of the people.
“At the moment Nigerians are suffering, people are psychologically traumatized, people are going through mental depression, and we are not even yet out of the covid-19 pandemic and just within a week you see hike in electricity, in fuel, and where are the basic amenities that the government have provided for the people?
“So, we are saying that all is not well with us in Nigeria and We can’t just wait until when we form a government before we can come out and advocate for some policies that are anti-people in this APC government. “
He said, “the truth is that we can’t afford for things to be going this way anymore and we will continue to hold the APC government responsible, we will continue to put them on their toes and we will continue to ensure that governance is run the way it’s run democratically across the globe and Nigeria is not peculiar in its case.
“When you talk about hike, we all know the pains we are going through. The insensitiveness is what we are asking, we know that, we cannot afford to be talking about the subsidy of a thing, but render, the government should do it well, as it is not timely. Let us have the modular refineries we are talking about first before the subsidy removal”, he stated.
“As custodian of this country, and a major, critical stakeholders and an opposition political party, we can’t continue to watch Nigeria going down the drain. So, I am sounding it clear, for all of us here, this struggle is not for us, but it is about our unborn generation and the ones coming behind us.
Our duty is to speak on behalf of the people. This platform that we have, the Young Progressive Party we will continue to maintain our stand in speaking for Nigerians.
