Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, a civil rights advocacy group, supported the Nigeria Labour Congress, or NLC, on Friday in opposing the Federal Government’s proposed 40% increase in energy rates, effective July 1, 2023.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of HURIWA, issued a statement in which he called the measures “anti-people” and warned that they would push more people into multidimensional poverty.
HURIWA’s Onwubiko said, “Despite the removal of fuel subsidy, governors, senators and government officials are still going around with convoys while over 130 million multidimensionally poor Nigerians have resorted to trekking long distance as they can no longer afford fares for commercial transportation as a result of the skyrocketing price of petrol.
“We reject the proposed hike in electricity tariffs and any increment that will further aggravate the sufferings of the common man. If it cannot help the poor and bring them out of poverty, the Tinubu-led administration should at least not suffocate them and let the poor breathe!”