Bishop Ighele calls for immediate reduction in price of petrol to avert protest

Bishop Charles Ighele, the General Superintendent of Holy Spirit Mission (aka Happy Family Church) Lagos, has urged the Federal Government (FG) to reduce the current fuel pump price to avert the planned nationwide protest billed from August 1 to 10.

Ighele stated that a reduction in the pump price of fuel in Nigeria would immediately ameliorate the prevalent hardship in the land and pacify the people. The political scientist, who wished the president success, said that the reduction in the pump price of petrol was the magic wand former President Goodluck Jonathan used to end the protest during his tenure.

He stated that there was nothing wrong if the president addressed the nation now. It all depends on what he will say He said: “Before he was sworn in as president, I cautioned in an interview I granted in the newspaper he owns about falling into the trap of fuel subsidy removal. Something Buhari was careful or scared to do. “The president went ahead to make the same error Jonathan made when he increased the price of petrol early in his presidency.

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“This led to protests which seriously affected the popularity of Jonathan within a few months after he was elected. What Jonathan did was to reduce the pump price with the amount with which he increased it. “That step stopped the protests.I will advise the president to effect the reduction of the pump price of petrol to a bearable limit.”

The soft-spoken cleric noted that the happenings show that the government is getting richer while the generality of the people is getting poorer which is an aberration. Adding that, the president should also be careful to know that fundraising systems that worked in mostly urban Lagos should not be implemented hook line and sinker in other parts of Nigeria.

He stated: “With my knowledge of political development in many nations of the world, governments that accept to reduce its share of the wealth of the nation and allow the people’s welfare to be of greater importance survived more than those hawkish governments that insisted on having the wealth and to use the wealth to provide palliative and other social services for the people. “Great leaders are made during tough times. Other sources of wealth creation should be explored by the government aside from fuel subsidy removal, taxes and so on.”