International non governmental Organization, The Lions Club International, has pledged its commitment to assist the Nigerian government in curbing the harsh effect of the fuel subsidy removal on citizens, particularly those in rural parts of the country.
Speaking to NewsDirect correspondent at the installation of the 14th President of Lions Club Abuja Metropolitan, the Region 1 chairperson of the club, Charles J. Opusunju noted that the NGO is already taking some measures to help individuals in the aspect of transportation and Hunger Relief.
Charles highlighted that in Cross River State, Lions Club provides free bus transportation service for the people and plans are in place to replicate the same in other States, including the FCT.
He said, “In Cross River State, we provide free bus service, we fuel the buses and allow people to join the buses free of charge.
“Some of us volunteer our vehicles to help transport people to work in the mornings.”
Charles also noted that the club had been interfacing privately with the government to see how best to cushion the subsidy effect, seeing that the organization is humanitarian in nature with “Service” being its core purpose.
“Most of us, privately, have been interfacing with the federal government to find a way to cushion the effect because we know how much people are suffering. The government is even overwhelmed with the problems of this country. The present administration is trying to see how they can close the gap from the last administration’s failure.
“So we have been interfacing with the government privately to see how they can cushion the effects of all this suffering. Wherever we can assist the government, we will do it. Like I told you last December, we tend to share food for communities, raw foodstuff to go around. We call it Hunger Relief.”
