Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State has raised an alarm over with he referred to as conspiracy by some faceless individuals to ensure the disintegration of Nigeria. He alleged an ongoing conspiracy and racketeering at the NNPC, which he says frustrates efforts to effect repairs onNigeria's refineries, just to encourage fuel importation.JOSEPH WANTU reports.On fuel subsidy/deregulationTHE most painful part about this, which I may say, is that it's been almost impossible to stop the conspiracy and racketeering that is going on at the NNPC because a lot of people are involved and a quantum of money is also involved. So it then means that we either totally subsidise or we do partial subsidy, but both ways the same fraud we are talking about will still subsists in that sector. You know, the only way we will begin to bring down prices is for the refineries to work.Now that we've deregulated, the NNPC people who have made it impossible for the refineries to work will have no motivation any longer. So those refineries will work and prices will come down. But if we keep doing half measures, it will not take us anywhere. Thoughit's a very painful decision because it affects everybody, but let Nigerians agree that we take this painful decision so that we can move forward.I have always said, President Jonathan is genuine in every decision he takes, and about whatever he wants to do. So the issue of trust shouldn't come in. You know that he has done less than a year of his tenure and why would he jeopardize his presidency. What he has done is out of genuine commitment. He has no reason to inflict hardship on the people. We as a people must agree that at some point, the leadership of a country must take some painful decisions to enable the country move forward. I sincerely plead with Labour to take a reconsidered view on this matter and review their stand so that this country can move forward, we cannot continue in this manner.Nothing is going on, but decisions that are aimed at moving the nation forward are taken and people are not ready to come to terms with it. It's a big problem indeed.The Labour congress should use this as a step towards making a difference. Not to add up to the already tensed situation in the country. If that is the case, we will be facing and taking care of the situation. But now that Labour has taken this stance, I agree with you that it is adding up to the already tensed situation that we already have on ground. But it is for Labour to sit down and probably agree with government that this decision it has taken, let there be a time frame, that if it does not happen then we know that government are not sincere. But if we don't give leadership a chance because you believe that some people had broken promises in the past, then we will not be moving anywhere. If somebody has come and he is genuine, let's give that person a chance. And I believe that President Goodluck deserves to be given a chance because he has demonstrated genuine commitment to the ideals Showing good exampleWe will follow the presidential directive on salary cuts and we will comply with that. It's our intension to ensure that this country is built on a solid foundation. We are saying that we want to be among the top 20 economies of the world in the year 2020. The decisions to take us there should be taken now otherwise, that would be a joke and a mirage. So, if the President makes a pronouncement that all political office holders should allow 25 percent deductions from their pay, so be it. We will comply with it. It's also a painful sacrifice we must all make to move the nation forward. The sacrifice should not only be for the man in the street, it cuts across all social strata. More enlightenment on subsidy I agree with you partially, but the fact is that down in my village, people do not enjoy subsidy, and in a lot of villages across the country, nobody buys fuel at N65, nobody. So they are not enjoying any form of subsidy. Subsidy is being enjoyed by the marketers and few individuals who can line up at the mega stations of the NNPC. The issue of subsidy as far as the villagers or the average Nigerian is concerned does not benefit them because outside of the major cities, or even in major cities, most filling stations do not sell PMS at N65 per litre. There are designated filling stations that sell at that price. Otherwise nobody enjoys it. So if majority of Nigerians are not enjoying it, who are the people misleading Nigerians' They are the same people who are milking Nigerians. They are the same people making billions of Naira and benefitting from subsidy, while Nigerians in general are not enjoying it in real sense because a few persons are making billions of Naira from it. So what are we talking about' I agree with you that we need to step up the enlightenment of Nigerians on the real situation on ground. Break it into a simple language and not technical language.For instance, for the first time, Benue is getting N7.6billion, we have never gotten such before. This is money that would have gone into the pockets of some few individuals. With that kind of money, if I decide to do rural roads I would be able to do two or three with N3billion and if a decide to build classrooms, I can do a classroom in each ward, because I have N4billion now and I can give jobs in the entire state. So with N7.6billion, I can put the money into meaningful projects. Even if I like to set up a small committee to ensure that the projects are carried out, that can be done. That makes lots of difference that we've been yearning for.But before now we couldn't have raised that kind of money. But as a result of Benue's share in 2012, we can embark on more life changing projects for the people of the state.These are some of the benefits of the new policy, just to mention a few. On Ethno-religious fracas The truth is that what is happening is outright mischief, it is not about religion, because mosques have been bombed and a lot of Muslims have been killed. You know, when they bombed these places in Damaturu, Borno, Adamawa and Bauchi, they were bombing both Muslims and Christians, now that they want to put pressure on government, they now realized that to put overbearing pressure on government they are now going to churches in the north to kill Christians in the Churches and in their homes.You will see that this is not about religion; it's about mischief, its absolute mischief by people who do not want this country to have peace. And I think that we should address it from that angle. I am not looking at it as a Boko Haram issue. People are using Boko Haram, disguising as Boko Haram to make sure that this country is divided. And I think that as leaders, we must be firm.In Benue here, I have kept the security agencies at alert, so that no Muslim moves out for fear of harassment or Christians being harassed. There will be nothing like that in Benue State. The Constitution of Nigeria provides that wherever you find yourself, irrespective of your religious or ethnic affiliation, that is where you belong and we must respect that. So people are desperately trying to introduce religious elements into this, so that they will disunite this country.I think that it is not about Boko Haram, this has got nothing to do with Boko Haram, it is mischievous individuals, they have tried everything and it has failed, and they know that if they introduce this angle it can divide this country easily, and that is what they are doing.Why are they going to churches to kill Christians' It is not Boko Haram. Boko Haram has killed more Muslims in the north than they are killing Christians. Now they know that it wasn't creating any news; they want to heighten it by doing this so that the country will be divided against itself. That is absolute mischief from mischiefmakers. So I think that, as leaders we must stand very firm.The people behind this are doing it and sending text messages that Christians should move back and Muslims should also move back. These people have an agenda and they are working towards it.Nigeria is one country, we are entitled to our faith, this is where we find ourselves as a people. So no Muslim is moving out of Benue to anywhere. Palliatives on subsidyThe palliatives are coming from the savings, since we envisage that our share of the saved subsidy is N7.6billion. We will sit down and look at what we can use that money for to cushion the hardship, which is mostly in the transport sector.
Click here to read full news..
