…Makes Case for Cab drivers, Farmers, Artisans, Traders,
Others
Full statement-The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calls on President Muhammadu Buhari
to immediately constitute an Eminent Nigerians Group to manage donations
from the private sector and palliatives from the federal government to
ensure that such interventions reached the desired persons in the
overall effort to check the health and economic impact of COVID-19 in
our country.
The party said the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 should
immediately hands off the management of palliatives so as to eliminate
corruption as well as political and bureaucratic bottlenecks that would
impede effective administration of the social panaceas to vulnerable
Nigerians.
The PDP also asks the Federal Government to halt plans by the Nigerian
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to ensure that there is no
increase in electricity tariff as Nigerians are going through
excruciating pains and cannot carry the burden of further increase in
costs.
The party expresses concerns that the Federal Government has so far
failed to reach vulnerable Nigerians in the informal sector, including
cab driver, keke and okada operators, artisans, labourers, market women,
traders, food sellers, fruit vendors, farmers and dealers of perishable
goods, motor mechanics, among others, whose survival directly depends on
daily income in the markets, shops and streets, which has been crippled
by lockdowns occasioned by the COVID-19.
Our party is deeply worried about the cries of hungry children whose
parents can no longer go out to provide for their families at this
critical time.
The PDP therefore holds that the situation at hand requires an urgent
involvement of all Nigerians irrespective of political, ethnic or
religious persuasion.
It is a time we must bring in eminent Nigerians from the private sector
to assist in developing and implementing operable target-specific
strategies to reach the vulnerable Nigerians across all informal sectors
of our economy.
The party calls for special interventions for farmers as well as
Nigerians involved in the production, distribution and marketing of
perishable consumer items by undertaking emergency bulk purchase,
storage initiatives as well as waivers on loans so as to check waste and
buoy production.
We also urge for strategic intervention for distressed Nigerians such as
cab drivers, keke operators, traders and other small-scale
entrepreneurs, who took bank loans for their enterprises, but have been
grounded by COVID-19 pandemic.
The PDP further demands that the Federal Government should adopt
strategies to cut interest rates on such loans by micro finance and
commercial banks in the country.
In the same vein, our party pleads with landlords, particularly those of
residential apartments, to bear with their low income group tenants,
whose businesses have been crippled at this critical time.
Moreover, the PDP restates its call on President Buhari to reduce the
cost of fuel from N125 to the appropriate pump price of between N80 and
N90 per liter to mitigate the suffering of Nigerians during this time.
Our party charges President Buhari to allow for a concerted effort that
looks at the nation as a whole and channel interventions to all the
states, local government and wards, using community based system that
would ensure that such interventions reach our compatriots at the
grassroot level.
Mr. President should also as a matter of urgency announce government
financial interventions for other states, as he did for Lagos state, as
well as support practical measures to get economic panaceas to all
Nigerians.
Our party, once again, commends the contributions and sacrifices of
philanthropic individuals and groups as well as health workers while
expressing optimism that our nation will defeat the coronavirus with the
concerted effort of all.
Signed:
Kola Ologbondiyan
National Publicity Secretary
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