By Uche Amunike
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said that his administration will review its earlier plan of distributing monthly cash palliatives of 8000 Naira to 12 million households for six months, as a way to alleviate the hardship caused by the fuel subsidy removal.
The policy was greatly criticized by organized labor, as they noted that it fell way beneath the level of intervention required to make less, the pains of Nigerians.
According to a statement signed and released by the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake, on Tuesday, the new directive refers to the views expressed by Nigerians against it.
Hear him: ‘The President has directed that the N8,000 conditional cash transfer program envisaged to bring succor to most vulnerable households be reviewed immediately.’
He also ordered that fertilizers and grains are immediately released to approximately 50 million farmers and households respectively in all the 36 states in Nigeria and the FCT.
Meanwhile, the former Chief-of- Staff to the Imo State Governor and President, Ugwumba Leadership Centre for Africa, Uche Nwosu, has made a plea to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to increase the subsidy palliative from N8000 naira to N30000 only.
While speaking to newsmen during a telephone chat in Abuja, he appealed to the president to see that there is proper monitoring, so that it would not be business as usual.
He pleaded with the president to enact a committee that would constitute members of the Nigerian Labor Congress, National Union of Nigerian Students, market traders, farmers and non governmental organizations, in order to ensure that the initiative is transparently distributed.
Hear him: ‘First of all we should appreciate Mr President for raising it from N5,000 by the former President to N8,000. The most important thing is that this money is not meant for people who have what they are doing already. If we say the money won’t go anywhere, it means that we have not appreciated those who are on the streets begging for N5 to eat.’
‘Although I plead with Mr President to increase this money to N30,000, so that the It shouldn’t be business as usual, where monies like these are given to ministries or agencies and at the end of the day nobody gets the money. Most of these agencies have killed us, most of them don’t even step out of their office, they sit in Abuja and do the arithmetic and at the end of the day, the money enters one person’s pocket.’
‘The members of the committee must be people of integrity and people that are ready to serve. With all what Nigerians are going through, there are people who need this palliative, it’s a welcome initiative.’
He further advised that the federal government should form a committee that would have market women, students, members of the Nigerian Labour Congress and elder statesmen and women, so that they would be able to monitor the money. He was of the opinion that the collaboration between the government and the NGOs will show the recipients of the palliatives how transparent the initiative is.
