The group in a statement on Wednesday signed by its Secretary, Engr. Anthony Ajayi, noted that citizens and businesses in the country are still struggling for survival. It added that the time is for encouragement and not for plunging Nigeria into another crisis as citizens have yet to recover from the dollar crisis.
Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere in the United Kingdom and Europe otherwise known as UK Afenifere, has condemned the recent hike in electricity tariff by the Nigerian Government.
The group in a statement on Wednesday signed by its Secretary, Engr. Anthony Ajayi, noted that citizens and businesses in the country are still struggling for survival. It added that the time is for encouragement and not for plunging Nigeria into another crisis as citizens have yet to recover from the dollar crisis.
Ajayi said since the value of the dollar is gradually falling against the naira, it should reflect on the lives of the citizens through a positive impact on food commodities since the country still depends on the importation of goods.
He said this is the time to encourage local manufacturing and farming to stabilise the economy and keep the dollar down to the lowest.
While commending President Bola Tinubu and his Economic Team for the dollar's fall against the naira, Afenifere said the strategies used in bringing down the dollar should also be used to sustain the strength of the naira, to bring it lower than the administration met it in 2023 and also bring down the prices of food commodities to give Nigerians a sigh of relief.
The group called on President Tinubu to be hard on tackling insecurity to enable farmers to farm to guarantee food sufficiency.
Part of the statement reads, "We can see the government is trying everything possible to bring down the dollar but despite that, prices and cost of food commodities are still on the high.
“Nigerians should feel the positive impact to improve living conditions. We are still looking forward to see the dollar go down less than the N670/$1 before they came on board in 2023. We urge the government to sustain the dollar fall to the naira.
"President Tinubu promised to do more on investing in education, as he believes that education is the greatest weapon against poverty.
"We also commend the President for the recent lanching of a 45,000-kilometre submarine fibre optic cable in Akwa Ibom State, which establishes connectivity for the entire South-South region of Nigeria with Europe, and other parts of Africa through the Atlantic Ocean.
“We believe in his reaffirmation and commitment to creating an enabling environment for business to thrive.
"He emphasised that his administration's focus on investing in key sectors, such as agriculture, solid minerals, energy, health, physical infrastructure, trade promotion, financial services, digital enterprise, and the creative economy is underpinned by the need to ensure the welfare and prosperity of citizens.
"The government can adopt the UK system of trading standard to investigate unfair trading and illegal business activity, like rogue traders and scams to unmask those sabotaging the Nigerian economy.
"Rising poverty, inequality and inadequacy of employment opportunities, particularly among the youth, are at the centre of our country's insecurity problem. The increased insecurity in our country has coincided with rising poverty levels, with an estimation of about 104 million people which is about 46 percent of the total population, living in extreme poverty. This should be addressed with zeal to reduce the figure to the nearest.
"Our insecurity challenge has grown beyond the activities of the extremist terrorist group (Boko Haram) into what is now a hydra-headed monster that is chronic in many areas and exacerbated by rising inflation and worsening unemployment.
"We currently have a variety of security issues, including banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder clashes, livestock rustling, separatist agitations and the continuous insurgency of Boko Haram.
“Since 2017, the situation has deteriorated substantially, with the majority of the incidents occurring in the Middle Belt and Northern Nigeria, which represent our farming belt.”
"Thousands of innocent Nigerians are abducted at will by heavily armed men known as bandits, and dozens of children in the North East are kidnapped from schools for ransom. We urge President Tinubu to be intentional in his quest for the renewed hope to combat insecurity so that Nigeria can develop and grow," the group added.