Nigerians and other people across the world bade farewell to 2024, with much gratitude to God for the ability to weather the storms of the past year.
As a new year sets in, citizens all over the country have also expressed optimism that 2025 will be better than the previous year across all spheres of the nation, reports Daily Independent.
They have also called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure that the hardship they face as a result of the removal of petroleum subsidies is reduced or totally ended.
Recall that President Tinubu had, on assumption of office in May 2023, removed subsidies on petroleum products, thereby making life unbearable for the citizens.
In an exclusive investigation conducted by our correspondents on the citizens’ expectations for the New Year, a Lagos-based lawyer, Nnamdi Ugbonye, who expressed gratitude to God for seeing him through the difficult time in the country, said: “I believe that 2025 will be far better than last year. 2024 was a very tough year for me and other Nigerian citizens.”
While appealing to the president to make sure that the cost of goods and services are made affordable to everyone in the country, Ugbonye, said: “As Nigeria’s president, Tinubu should make sure that people do not suffer any form of hardship as they did in the past year.
“He should advise Aliko Dangote and other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to reduce the cost of petrol and cooking gas. If the president is able to achieve this, it will go a long way in checking the untold hardship inflicted on the citizens.”
Corroborating the lawyer, a Delta State-based school proprietress, Martina Umukoro, said: “The high cost of using diesel and fuel to power generating sets in the schools is transferred to the school fees.
“You cannot blame those in the education sector for the increase in school fees. To offer quality education requires money.
“We appeal to the president to reduce the cost of petroleum products, which will invariably lead to a reduction in cost of food items and other goods and services in the country.”
Umukoro added: “If these are taken care of by the president and other stakeholders in the nation, those who have increased the cost of their goods and services will be forced to reduce them.”
Abayomi Okunade, a driver, while appealing to President Tinubu to keep to the words of his Transformation Agenda, said: “We just beg the president to try as much as possible to reduce the cost of fuel and other goods and services. The removal of fuel subsidies is the real cause of the problem we are facing in this country today.”
Similarly, a mobile phone seller in Ladipo Market, Obinna Okeke, while thanking God for how his business fared amidst the economic hardship in the country in the past year, urged Tinubu to reduce taxes imposed on importation of goods by the Nigerian Customs Service.
While also appealing for the stabilization of the foreign exchange rate, Okeke said: “If the exchange rate of the Naira to Dollar is stabilised, the cost of importing goods into the country will reduce automatically, and the citizens will be happy.”
