DR. NYAHO-TAMAKLOE, a leading member of the New Patriotic Party, has warned that if the government failed to tackle the fuel situation realistically, not only would it be courting political disaster, but would also end up creating dislocations in the economy.
He argued that much as it is necessary that politicians empathise with the ordinary man on the street, it is imperative to use political power in the ultimate interest of the people.
Nyaho-Tamakloe was speaking to the Chronicle in a telephone interview in Accra when the paper called him to offer suggestions on the way out of the nagging issues regarding petroleum prices and subsidies.
Almost faulting the governments' propaganda machinery for not having adequately convinced the grassroots and workers about the dire fuel situation and the need to "grab the bull by horns", he declared, "We have to bite the bullet now.
We must deal realistically with the situation once and for all or run the economy aground and face the anger of our people. It is better to try and convince them of our good intentions and get them accept the truth than unduly cushioning them only to find out later that they were not told the truth.
We have already shown a high degree of openness to the people. We must take advantage of that goodwill on the ground and honestly get our people to accept to pay realistic prices for oil to keep ourselves out of debt and make some savings towards developing the nation in terms of infrastructure.
We must make them aware that we do not produce oil and so have very little control over the international oil market and prices determined by oil-producing nations".
He insisted that the issue therefore about government perpetually subsiding prices of petroleum products should not be looked at from the lenses of political expediency but from economic realism and national interest".
Nyaho-Tamakloe also reacted to information provided by the Chronicle after talking with "grassroots" people, including unemployed youths and market women to the effect that they, the people, feared an increase in fuel prices would worsen their economic situation.
"The Ministry of Information has done well so far in trying to educate the people on this thorny issue, but I believe they can do better still by putting in place a special programme to sell this message to the people and let it go down their minds once and for all. If we are able to get them understand this issue as properly as they should, there will be very little problem with future justifiable increases. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) failed to do this effectively and had to live the pangs of that political miscalculation. We must not repeat their mistake".
A research done by the Chronicle in La, Teshie and Bukom which are suburbs of the capital indicated that the ordinary man in the street is not quite well informed about the true benefits that lie in our people paying realistic prices for fuel.
They believed keeping prices at the current level and dealing with fuel smugglers and drivers ruthlessly would be a better solution.
