Bishop Charles Ighele.
By Odinaka Uruakpa
The General Superintendent of Holy Spirit Mission (aka Happy Family Church) Lagos, Bishop Charles Ighele, has urged the Federal Government to reduce the current fuel pump price so as to avert the planned nationwide protest billed from August 1 to 10, 2024.
Ighele said that a reduction in the fuel pump price would instantly ameliorate the prevalent hardship in the land, and pacify the people.
The cleric and political scientist, wishing the president success, said that the reduction in the pump price of petrol was the magic wand which former President, Goodluck Jonathan used to end the protest that was being planned during his tenure.
The Bishop said that it would be good if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu addressed the nation on this issue, adding that everything depended on what he (President) would say.
Said he: “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.
“This led to protests which seriously affected the popularity of Jonathan 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 cleric said that the happenings in the country show that the government is getting richer while the generality of the people are getting poorer, which is an aberration.
Cautioning the president, Ighele said he (Tinubu) ought to know that fundraising systems that worked in urban areas like Lagos may not be applicable to other parts of the country.
Said he: “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 use the wealth to provide palliatives 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”.
