National Association of Nigerian Students has threatened that students in tertiary institutions all over the country would embark on mass protest next Monday except the Federal Government reversed the hike in the pump price of fuel and electricity tariff increase.
NANS warned that it would carry out a nationwide protest on Monday September 14, 2020, if something was urgently done about the new prices.
“Nigerians are bewildered that having been under months of lockdown and restrictive measures, welcoming them back to normal life with increases in prices of essential commodities is a burden too harsh for the citizens to bear”
NANS President, Danielson Akpan, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja, urged the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to make the welfare of Nigerians a priority.
Akpan said, “Nigerians are bewildered that having been under months of lockdown and restrictive measures, welcoming them back to normal life with increases in prices of essential commodities is a burden too harsh for the citizens to bear.
“It is no longer news that the Federal Government in a swooping total deregulation and subsidy removal policy announced another increase in the pump price of PMS. It is also a known fact that prior to that, the Federal Government also approved increases in electricity tariff while banks regrettably reduced interests on customer savings.
“The effects of these increases amidst earlier increments made in Value Added Tax and multiple taxations on goods and services have started causing unbearable consequences, thereby compounding the obvious imbalances in the economic and social life of Nigerians, most of whom are dependent on (unstable) electricity supply and PMS to do businesses and make ends meet.
“Precisely on Monday, September 14 2020, Nigerian students shall be making a loud statement in a mass protest across the six geopolitical zones, and the Federal Capital Territory to demand outright reversal of the insensitive price hikes.”