• Pregnant Mothers Skip Antenatal Care Over High Transport FareAmong their complaints is that life has rather become more miserable for them. They criticised the president for ‘foisting an anti-people economic policy’ on the country.
Coordinator of the Arewa Defence League , Murtala Abubakar, who spoke with The Guardian in Kaduna, said the policy had thrown thousands of families in the northern part of the country into severe hardship. “Go to the streets of Kaduna, there are more beggars. People are also selling their properties for survival. People can no longer afford essential foodstuff because the prices have skyrocketed and their income is stagnant,” Abubakar said.
“Go to the hospital, you will see that the number of sick people have increased. And where is the money to buy drugs and food? The price of everything has increased. The government should help Nigerians and solve these problems of poverty and hunger in the land. They should repair our refineries and make them work to make the price of fuel to come down.”
“Their number has reduced compared to what we normally record. Most of them are complaining about the hike in transportation fare. You know most of them are from neighbouring communities. They have to hire a bike,” he said. Ruing the situation, the Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation , Ibuchukwu Ezike, said it was wrong for anyone to believe that the current hardship in the country is a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Ezike lamented that the increment in the pump prices of petroleum products had resulted in astronomical hike in the cost of living. “Nigerians are very angry and frustrated about the policy. It has led to the worst economic mess ever witnessed in the country since independence. Unfortunately, it portrays the president as an unprepared, unpatriotic, unresponsive and incompetent leader who does not care about public opinion.