Nigerians have continued to react to the planned N8,000 monthly cash disbursement amounting to N500 billion to 12 households announced by the Federal Government to mitigate the impact of the recently removed subsidy on petrol on poor citizens.
President Bola Tinubu had during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023 removed the long criticized subsidy regime and this resulted in immediate deregulated costs of petrol costs across the country.
As part of the measures to lessen the hardship this caused on the poor, President Tinubu in a letter to the House of Representatives during the week, disclosed the plan to transfer N8,000 to 12 million poor households in Nigeria for a period of six months.
This plan has attracted diverse reactions from across the nation with many, while agreeing with the President on the need to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal, advised government to toe another path aside paying the people cash.
READ ALSO: https://thecrux.org.ng/2023/07/12/hope-looms-as-tinubu-seeks-n500b-for-subsidy-palliatives/
Veteran journalist and public interest advocate, Ibrahim Dan-Halilu told Periscope, that he supported the idea of cushioning the effect of fuel subsidy removal but disagreed with the cash transfer.
“I don’t know how the government arrived at its figure in a country with about 200 million people under extreme poverty. Majority of the extreme poor who live in rural communities have no bank accounts. So how will the palliative get to them?
“The cash transfer programme of the (former President Muhammadu) Buhari Administration under the NSIP should serve as a pointer to the fact that cash transfer cannot work in a society that has no transparent database of poor and vulnerable citizens. The fund may end up in wrong hands as we witnessed under the NSIP,” Mr. Dan-Halilu noted.
He said dishing out funds to people will only aggravate the current hyperinflation rate across boards.
On his part, Abuja-based legal practitioner, Barr Ken Asogwa, expressed concern with the modalities and data to be used for distributing the palliatives.
“How did they arrive at 12m most vulnerable Nigerians? Who computed the numbers? For a country that doesn’t have any data bank, the exercise is doomed to fail.
“Buhari’s social investment programs failed because of the same reasons. Many of us did not get to see the impact on our citizens, yet the government of Buhari claimed they were spending N500b annually to cater for the poor.
He queried the data that President Tinubu is relying upon in executing the cash transfer to the affected homes.
“Is it the same data that Buhari used in his own botched program? I expected Tinubu to have started with data collection on the most vulnerable Nigerians before the distribution. But I understand that he is in a hurry to appeal to Nigerians by bringing up some populist policies that could earn him immediate legitimacy. Good luck to him,” Asogwa said.
READ ALSO: https://thecrux.org.ng/2023/07/13/tinubu-declares-state-of-emergency-on-food-security/
Goke Eesuola, an Oyo-based legal practitioner and rights activist, in faulting the cash transfer policy, described ridiculous and an attempt to create ‘chop money’ for the boys.
“I really and honestly think this is ridiculous and an attempt to create ‘chop money’ for the boys using a large platform that will be difficult to track or trace.
“We do not have a database that is reliable. I’m sure you Nigerians have not forgotten what happened with the feeding programme under Buhari and how it ended as a scam, ditto for the Cash Transfer handled by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo,” Eesuola said.
He added that N8,000 palliative would not make an impact at a time a measure (mudu) of rice is sold for N1500, beans N1100, and small paint bucket of garri being sold for N800.
“Today, 1kg of Semo is almost N1000. I honestly do not think the President had any plan beforehand. He is only interested in collecting tax. Anyone with the welfare of the people in mind would have rolled out palliatives, shock absorbers to stem galloping inflation especially on household goods and food. What can 8k do?,” he queried.
He added that a 30-minute journey from Ojoo Bus Terminus to Oyo town today costs N2000 while one-way trip from Ado-Ekiti to Lagos is now N8000 against N3500 before the removal of the subsidy.
“I think the policy will fail and 70% of the money will be stolen,” the lawyer asserted.
Katsina-born Dan-Halilu, however, offered alternatives to the Federal Government to adopt instead of the cash payment.
“Government should target specific sectors for the intervention such as food security, Healthcare, transport, and education. They should purchase grains to sell to people at subsidized prices, subsidies prices of fertilizer and other farming inputs.
He urged government to purchase drugs for free distribution to indigent patients while suggesting that moribund mass transit public transport should be revived.
He further advocated the introduction of bursary for students from disadvantaged families to cover costs of feeding, boarding, and books as palliatives that would have impact on the target category of Nigerians.
