Buhari Should Reshuffle His Economic Team – NUPENG

Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG have begged Buhari to reshuffle his economic team and ensure security and infrastructural development are his priority during the next four years.

As he congratulated the nation and its citizens for a peaceful and successful inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday, NUPENG in a statement by its President, Prince William Akporeha urged “the government to look into the collapsed state of country’s security architecture, especially the increasing cases of kidnapping, armed banditry, communal clashes, insurgency, advanced fee fraud, cyber crimes, Boko Haram, ritual killings, herder-farmer conflicts, cattle rustling and youth restiveness.”

The statement read, “The high prevalence of insecurity in Nigeria has given rise to drastic cut in supply chain of both cash and food crops from the rural communities. Worst still, this has led to rural-urban migration, a situation that has snowballed into population explosion and avoidable overstretched infrastructure in the urban centres as people are looking for safety and protection of their lives. Regrettably, this is a fresh threat that could trigger famine in the country.

“Besides, this menace has drastically reduced investment profile of Nigeria because both local and foreign investors are scared of the hostile and insecure environment, which is a big risk to them and their financial institutions.

“As a result of this, many employable Nigerians are grappling with acute unemployment and the few that are engaged are faced with job insecurity.

“NUPENG therefore calls on President Muhammadu Buhari, having attained this fresh milestone and mandate to speedily nip the security challenges of the country in the bud with such proactive intervention. We believe this will serve as springboard to open windows of opportunities for socio-economic growth and advancement.”