FG’s tokenism of N8,000 as palliative should be reviewed

The Senate had last week Thursday approved the request of President Bola Tinubu to borrow $800m loan from the World Bank. It also amended the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act to accommodate the provision for N500billion for palliatives to mitigate the effect of petrol subsidy removal on poor Nigerians.

The President requested the two approvals in separate letters read by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, at the plenary.

According to Tinubu, the $800million loan will be used to cater for the welfare of the vulnerable and poor households in the country under the National Safety Net Programme, while the sum of N8,000 will be transferred monthly to the bank accounts of 12 million poor and low income households for six months.

Nigerians across the federation are already agonising over the effects of the subsidy removal from the petroleum products which made the pump price per litre from the previous N190 per litre to jump to N500, the cheapest in some part of the country as the independent petroleum marketers sell for as much as N520 upwads per litre.

It will be recalled that the President Tinubu announced the end to subsidy payment to fuel importers and marketers at his inauguration on May 29, 2023.

Expectedly, the adverse effects of this policy on the day to day living of an average Nigerian had been so biting, even the rich and the privilege ones in the society are feeling the heat.

For instance, this policy has had a lot of telling effects in the ever rising cost of living in the country due to the rise in cost of transportation, cost of commodities and services among others. There is no doubting the fact that this policy which is making the people to spend so much more from their meagre income would worsen the already unacceptable level of poverty in the country.

And as a means of cushioning the biting effects of this subsidy removal which is also making the country to reportedly save a whopping N400billion monthly, President Tinubu announced the proposal to release N500billion as palliative from  which N8,000 would be paid 12 million poor households for six months. Out of this palliative fund, N70billion is said to have been earmarked for the new members of the national assembly totalling about 306 while another N40billion from the fund will be use to buy  exotic cars for these same parliamentarians.

Nigerians have however come out to strongly oppose proposal of N8,000 tokenism as form of palliatives to cushion the painful sacrifice they make everyday due to the subsidy removal. It is the opinion out there that the federal government should stop forthwith the distribution of this handouts because such cash transfer to the poor had failed in the past.

Aside the fact that N8,000 will have little or no impact on any poor household given the high cost of commodities in the country, the same programme like Trader Moni, Farmer Moni and conditional cash transfer of N5,000 to the poor under the immediate past government of President Buhari had largely failed. Many Nigerians who were supposed to benefit waited in vain as large chunk of these money ended in private pockets.

Allegedly, food palliatives that were supposed to have been distributed during the COVID-19 lockdown were just locked somewhere to rot away until the rampaging youths during End SARS protest of October 2020 looted these places.

As part of measures to counter this policy, workers have demanded for a pay rise suggesting as much as N200,000 as minimum wage as against the current N30,000, it is now left for the government to sit with the labour leaders and work out a living salary that could actually help them to survive.

Aside this, what about making courageous moves to build at least two brand new refineries in the country within the next four years? It is the strong opinion of the economists rather than these handouts, the government should be ready to make huge investment in having new refineries such that the crude oil gotten here is refined here and we shall ultimately shut the door against fuel importations which is the major reason why we are buying at this exhorbitant price.

The government should also sincerely and patriotically spend the huge savings from the subsidy removal on our power sector such that we shall put behind us the present epileptic power supply which is inhibiting growth of small medium enterprises that could help the country solve her hydra-headed unemployment hassle.

To cushion the devastating effect of the subsidy removal on transportation, the government can provide long buses in form of mass transit that will be highly subsidised to commute people.

Another area where government can channel these huge savings from the subsidy removal to is in the area of qualitative healthcare and improved access to qualitative education. Accessing qualitative healthcare given the level of poverty in the country most times could be very daunting, it won’t therefore be a bad idea for government to highly subsidise health care services so that many Nigerians will cease to be victims of so many avoidable deaths. Our healthcare could truly be equipped with adequate health personnel and medical equipment that could aid qualitative healthcare delivery and help check medical tourism that gulp millions of dollars from Nigerians annually.

There are really several options aside tokenism that are open to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu if indeed he wants to live up to the billings of his campaign mantra of coming around to renew hope of Nigerians and not make it another forlorn hope! Time to listen to Nigerians is now.