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TUNDE ADELEKE, Osogbo
The National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) has threatened to launch a nationwide protest if the Federal Government fails to address the country’s recurrent fuel scarcity.
The association also demanded that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, give an explanation and provide lasting solutions within 72 hours
According to a statement jointly signed by the National President, NAPS, Ridwan Munirudeen, and the Senate President, NAPS, Adeniji Temitope, on Tuesday, the fuel scarcity has led to a reduction in working days by students and lecturers.
The statement partly reads: “It is with total dismay and disappointment that we write to express our dissatisfaction with the lingering fuel scarcity that has rocked our beloved country.
“Ever since the removal of fuel subsidy, the entire student and leadership of the Nigeria Polytechnic sector have maintained calmness. This is because we have strong belief in the vision of our father, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and as such, we don’t want to be tagged as an enemy of development.
“Unfortunately, our critical study has shown that the management of NNPC is nothing but a saboteur of this government; their actions and inactions over the issue of fuel subsidy are worrisome, especially now that it has become a reoccurring decimal in an administration that has been in power for less than two years. We see this as a deliberate act to smear the image and dent the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“It may interest you to know that virtually all Nigerian polytechnics—federal, state, and private—are in their second semester. This implies that most of our students are preparing to write their final exams, but unfortunately, over 75% can’t go to school because of fuel. Due to scarcity, students can no longer afford to transport themselves to school since transport fares have unreasonably skyrocketed. Both students and staff have reduced their lecture days just in a bid to contain the excesses of NNPC.
“It is on record that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR means well for Nigerian students, and ever since his emergence, he has never handled the welfare and well being of Nigerian students with levity, and as such, we see this “too frequent” fuel scarcity as a calculated attempt to incite the general public, especially “we,” the concerned students, against the government.
“In lieu of this, we demand urgent explanation and a lasting solution from the leadership of the NNPC within 72 hours, or the GMD NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari should honourably resign and apologise to Nigerians for inflicting unnecessary pain and frustration on them at this time that the government is assiduously working round the clock to stabilise our economy and rescue the citizens from our common enemy, which is insecurity.
“An attempt for Mallam Mele Kyari to undermine our strength and resolve will attract the wrath of Nigeria Polytechnic Students in a nationwide protest starting from all our campuses to federal highways to demand the immediate and unconditional removal of Mele Kyari for capable hands to take over.”
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