By SUNNY OKIM

The National Consultative Front (NCFront) has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government of using poverty as a weapon to subdue Nigerians.

The emergent movement made this assertion in a statement made available toNews Expresssigned by its Head, Public Affairs Bureau, Dr. Tanko Yunusa dated Wednesday, September 2, 2020.

According to the political group led by former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Umar Ghali Na’aba, some of the litany of woes visited on Nigerian citizens by the Buhari government range from the serial increase in petroleum products since it came into power in 2015, jacking up of the Value Added Tax (VAT), introduction of stamp duties in all banking transactions, and the recent introduction of tax on all tenancy and lease Agreements.

Speaking on the recently increased fuel pump price NCFront said,

“Being a grassroots mass movement, we have observed the melancholic mood of Nigerians following reports that the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Tuesday increased the ex-depot price of PMS from N138.62 per litre to N151.56 per litre.

“With the ex-depot price being the amount at which the product is sold to marketers at the depots, it is a no-brainer that this unconscionable hike by the federal government will translate to an increase in the pump price of petrol thus worsening the woes of Nigerians who have just been yoked with an increased electricity tariff amongst other devastating policies of government.

“We utterly regret that the administration is carrying on as if its sole aim of seeking and acquiring another term of political power is to punish Nigerians for a supposed grouse that has remained unclear.

“Else, there's no other reason as to why a government would so prey on hapless citizens still battling with untold hardship foisted by Covid 19 lockdown.”

Continuing, the statement said,

“Nigerians, if nothing is done, should expect more vindictive economic policies tailored towards ensuring that the citizenry is pauperised into docility and submission to the administration's full-blown dictatorial proclivities.

“The recent punitive amount of N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira only) for hate speech announced by the Minister for Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, was another building block in the construction of the edifice for despotic rulership by the Buhari regime.

“We believe that the impoverishment of citizens by the demobilising economic policies of the Buhari government is aimed at weakening Nigerians' resolve to challenge the ruling political at elections by making them docile, malleable and submissive to the Buhari regime.

“Nigerians can wean themselves off their complacency and docility by joining NCFront to pull off a major electoral ballot revolution that is underway.”

NCFront also beamed its searchlight on some states in the country which it accused of transferring the economic hardship brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic to their already impoverished workforce, who are being treated as scapegoats and made to bear the burden of state's dwindling revenue occasioned by Covid 19 lockdown, as well as corruption and incompetence.

“We have noted that workers in some states were not only paid a miniscule fraction of their meagre salaries, but are now being sacked arbitrarily in flagrant disregard of labour rights so that government officials can continue to live extravagant lifestyle aided by pilfered public funds.

“Given that the pay of Nigerian workers can barely take them home, it is wicked for those in authority to feed from the little they depend on for their survival as it is criminal to tamper with their rights under whatsoever guise.

“Therefore, if it is about reducing overhead cost, governors must leave workers salary alone and rather focus on their security votes and other funds being wasted on their coterie of do-nothing appointees,” the statement further stated.

The statement called on Nigerians to join hands with NCFront leaders of conscience in emancipating themselves from “a ruling class that can neither guarantee their security nor care about their welfare”.