Politics
By Anthony Isibor
SOME Nigerians have taken to Twitter to express their displeasure over the federal government’s plan to distribute N500 billion as palliatives to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on petrol.
President Bola Tinubu had written to the Senate requesting for the approval of N500 billion for palliatives to mitigate the effects of the removal of petrol subsidy on Nigerians.
The request titled “Request for the amendment of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act”, which was contained in a letter to the Senate was read by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio during plenary on Thursday, July 13.
However, reacting to the planned palliatives, Senator Shehu Sani noted via his official Twitter handle @ShehuSani, that people, who collected Buhari’s ‘jazzed’ 10k ended up in deeper poverty. Pray before you collect the next 8k.
The outspoken human rights activist, who is known for analyzing government policies, had also earlier asked that the National Assembly need to demand for the item by item breakdown of the figures; who is going to be in charge of the money; which agency of government will handle the funds and how it’s going to be disbursed before the approval of the N500 billion presidential request for the palliatives.
According to him, this is for transparency and avoiding the past humanitarian ministry fiasco.
Responding to Sani, Balogun OK a Twitter user @OwoBalo said; “We expected government to provide affordable electricity, good transportation, improved security, agriculture and others in order to cushion the negative effects of subsidy removal Instead of sharing money to only 12m people which the money may not reach most of them. Why are we behaving this way.
Ikechukwu Ude, another Twitter user @Ozo Ude said that the APC govt claimed it saved N400 billion from subsidy in just one month. Planning to spend N500 billion in palliative. What kind of palliative? We were told that subsidy removal was to help FG to save enough capital for job creation and building more roads and infrastructures. We have been scammed again in less than 2 months.
JOHN OGE @JOHNOGE27583366 asked “Why borrowing again when the APC government claims they have saved ₦400bn in a month of subsidy removal. Let them use the money as palliative then. Must Nigeria borrow? My thought.
Ude added that the subsidy payment is usually hinged on debt. “They normally borrow money from Nigerian banks as well as foreign banks to pay for subsidy. Simply put, govt did not borrow N400 billion last June to pay subsidy but will borrow the same amount plus additional N100 billion. A total of N500 billion will be borrowed to solve the problem created by saving N400 billion. The irony is that we saved N400 billion and willing and ready to spend N500 billion. Actually APC is not the habit of saving. That’s why Peter Obi was mocked for saving as governor of Anambra State by this same govt”
Similarly, Espelbengz @Espelbengz explained that “Nigeria saved N400bn it would have spent on fuel subsidy, simply means, Nigeria avoided wasting N400bn on fuel subsidy”. Everyone knows Nigeria has been running on deficit budget for some years now. This thing shouldn’t be difficult for you to comprehend.
Also Sanni Abiodun Caleb @harbeynaty added “If you’re saving 4500bn in a month and you use N500b as palliative does that not make? The subsidy removal is gone & it as gone for life.
He said that saving N400b every month in a year a month amounts to N4.8t.
“Out of that you use N500b as palliative to me it’s ok sir.” h added
Realnews reported that President Bola Tinubu had in his letter to the Senate stated that the request became necessary in order to among other things, source the funds needed to provide palliatives to mitigate the effect of the recent removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians.
According to him, the sum of N500 billion had been extracted from the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act of N819,536,937,815 for the provision of palliatives to Nigerians to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
The letter has since been referred to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.
A.
– July 14, 2023 @ 10:45 GMT |
Tags: Anthony Isibor Ikechukwu Ude Senate President Godswill Akpabio Senator Shehu Sani
