Wale Elegbede A coalition of no fewer than 50 Yoruba Diaspora groups and organisations from four continents, The Yoruba One Voice (YOV), has expressed worry over the federal government’s upward review of electricity tariff and fuel price, describing it as callous.
According to Somorin, Nigeria had applied for a $1.5 billion loan from the World Bank just as the World Bank had stated that it won’t grant the loan because Nigeria was heading towards its greatest fiscal crisis in 40 years if certain reforms were not made. While it was necessary to make reforms that would boost the economy, YOV said it was shocking that the Nigerian government would make these reforms at the detriment of its citizens..
However, the coalition called on the federal government to reject the World Bank’s loan in its entirety, saying Nigeria would not go into recession should such loan was refused even as more Nigerians would become poorer than we had witnessed in the last 40 years with the World Bank loan.
In a statement made available to newsmen from Toronto, Canada by International Human Rights Journalist and Communication Director of YOV, Zacchaeus Somorin, the coalition described the federal government’s action as not only callous but insensitive and inconsiderate considering the impact of COVID-19 on citizens.
It reads: “Most countries of the world are giving stimulus packages to their citizens ranging from $800 to $1,500 weekly, instead of the Nigerian Government to focus on economic recovery and re-build using the stimulus package model of COVID-19 adopted by countries such as Australia, United Kingdom, United States or Canada, the government decided to increase the pumppriceof premiummotor spirit (PMS) otherwise known as petrol to N161.56 per litre and electricity tariff.