Alhaji Azeez Adebayo, an octogenarian and retired international businessman, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to muster the political will to swiftly rebuild the nation’s refineries in order to ease the suffering of the teeming masses and strengthen the depreciated Naira.
Adebayo, who just turned 82, worked as a dealer for foreign vehicles and parts in the 1970s before retiring.
He told reporters in Ilorin that the current hardship experienced by the public in Nigeria was mostly due to the high cost of petroleum, with only mild international repercussions.
Because oil is such a huge part of Nigeria’s economy, the elderly man said, the repairs to the country’s refineries will result in a dramatic drop in the price of petroleum goods, which will help the country’s population.
Adebayo wistfully reflected on the days of exchanging N55 to a dollar for his business dealings in the 1970s, when a dollar was worth over N1,000.
This is not impossible if given serious attention, the octogenarian stated, thus he was making a “strong appeal” to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to do everything in his ability to rebuild our refineries to maximum production within the next two years.
The current misery is becoming really painful, thus I think this is a big step that will bring relief to the hordes of people.
Nigerians are struggling, and it will take the sight of mass graves to make the country’s leaders realize how dire their country’s position is.
Adebayo, a prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State, recently petitioned the federal government to create a national Price Monitoring Unit to prevent retailers and wholesalers from taking advantage of the public by artificially inflating the prices of goods and commodities to compensate for the rising cost of fuel.
He proposed forming a Price Monitoring Unit with industry leaders, the market association, and other key players to establish fair prices for our goods and services and monitor their enforcement.
“It’s terribly terrible because we Nigerians are our own enemies. Prices on the open market are raised by sellers at will. Adebayo
Can you picture a vendor of gari, pepper, or yam flour explaining the price hike of these staples in terms of the fluctuating value of the dollar? His words.
“The Federal Government should establish Price Monitoring Unit at all levels,” the petition reads. “This unit would be responsible for fixing our products’ and commodities’ prices and would also move round at random to ensure that they are complied with.”
The older person railed about the excessive length of time it takes for matters to be decided in our courts, saying that this was terribly unfair to the people of the country.
Adebayo expressed regret that some cases took 30 years or more to get from the High Court to the Supreme Court, and he speculated that many of the original plaintiffs may have passed away during this time.
In order to ensure that matters are resolved quickly by the courts, he suggested that the President take immediate action to conduct a comprehensive review of the judicial system.
