Nigeria is Broke,Then We Increased Fuel Price - Laid Mohammed

       The Federal Government has said it
increased the price of petrol to raise money
to run the system, since the country was
broke.
Government said Nigeria’s foreign earnings
had drastically reduced in recent times and
that the only way out of its present financial
quagmire was to look inwards to generate
more money.
Information Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed,
stated these while briefing newsmen at the
end of the Federal Executive Council
meeting, chaired by President Muhammadu
Buhari, yesterday.
Also at the briefing were Attorney General
of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami; Minister of Power, Works
and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, and
Labour Minister, Dr. Chris Ngige.
Mr. Lai Mohammed said: “The current
problem is not really about subsidy removal.





It is about the fact that Nigeria is broke.
Pure and simple.
“It is like when somebody who has been
earning N100,000 a month is faced with a
situation where his employer says,
henceforth you will be earning N10,000 a
month. He would need to make some very
painful decisions and some very painful
adjustments. That is the situation with
Nigeria today.”
Also speaking, Dr. Ngige denied allegations
that government was encouraging labour
factionalisation by negotiating with both
Ayuba Wabba and Joe Ajaero factions at
separate meetings to forestall the strike.
Ngige said the door is still open for talks
with the Federal Government, noting that
“we are ready to discuss with anybody, even
civil society groups. As a government, we
will not encourage factionalisation.”
Similarly, Malami faulted the criticisms
arising from the Federal Government’s legal
approach for injunction against the industrial
action, saying it was necessary, especially
as NLC did not give the government the
constitutional 15 days notice.





On the waiver granted Dangote Group for
the construction of a section of Lokoja-
Obajana-Kabba-Ilorin Road, specifically the
section between Obajana-Kabba Road, Mr.
Fashola said the road was important for the
infrastructure development of the country.
He said: “Companies are ordinarily supposed
to pay income tax. There are existing
policies in our laws which enable
government to consider and give tax
incentives.
“Council considered and approved the
proposal for Dangote Construction Company
to build that section of the road because
the tonnage of cement being produced from
the factory has increased and the traffic in
that area has increased; there has been
unfortunate accidents also.”