The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to use his good offices to ensure the continuous implementation of the naira-to-crude-deal between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and other indigenous refineries.
HURIWA in a press statement issued by it national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, appealed to President Tinubu to : “In the spirit of the Sallah celebrations and given the public shows of supplications to God by the president and other public office holders as part of the end of the fasting and lenting period, we are praying President Tinubu to direct his coordinating minister for the economy and the Minister of Finance to transparently and rapidly reach agreement to continue the naira-to-crude-deal with local crude oil refineries including the Dangote Petroleum refinery.
The group added: “We make this public supplication and appeal because any alteration to this deal would mean excruciating hardships and the massive affliction of poverty on millions of the already suffering, struggling and multi-dimensionally poor households. “
HURIWA argued that political leadership is not about theatrics or empty rhetorics but leadership ought to be embedded in the virtues of compassion, care for humanity and implementation of economic policies with humane face.
“It is only when the interests of the greatest percentage of the citizens are satisfied that a central or regional governments can be assessed to have kept faith with the constitutionally guaranteed principles of transparency, accountability and promotion of the public good. The security and welfare of the citizenry is the primary lawful duty of government.”
In a media statement endorsed by the national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA told President Tinubu that from its assessment of the public perception of the failure to keep the implementation of the naira-to-crude deal, more Nigerians would be thrown out of work, given that the operational costs of running small and medium scale businesses that depend on privately generated electricity power supply which comes basically from petrol powered generators, means immediate closure of hundreds of thousands of businesses and eventual dismissal of thousands of private sector workers.
The group affirmed that even those citizens working in federal agencies and state government agencies would be in severe difficulties to meet up with the anticipated hikes in transportation and costs of living as a result of upward adjustments in the prices of petroleum products and the persistent poor salaries that these public sector workers earned.
HURIWA affirmed that practically and sincerely speaking, there is a general climate of public anxiety not just in the downstream arm of the oil and gas sector as operators await the decision of the federal government on the naira-for-crude deal between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.