Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
A former Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Ambrose Aisabor (rtd), has described the proposed N8,000 palliative for 12 million household for six months as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy as a futile exercise and not realistic.
Aisabor who stated this in reaction to the announcement of N8,000 palliatives by the federal government, said Nigeria don’t need to follow the dictates of the world bank and the Internal Monetary Fund (IMF) one hundred percent.
“There is no doubt the removal of subsidy by the federal government is in the public interest and in fact long overdue but the mistake they made was not putting certain measures in place to cushion the effects of such removal on the populace”.
According to him, the federal government should have known that we have passed this road before and nothing came out of it other than many more citizens have been thrown into multidimensional poverty.
“What is N8000 that can’t buy a bag of rice, beans, garri among others. The people has rent, school fees, health care, transportation and other sundry expenses”.
He stressed the need for the federal government to localize the palliative to suit our peculiar situation, as similar palliative has not helped the people out of poverty.
The retired AIG flayed the federal government for declaring state of emergency on food instead of state of national security, noting that farmers can no longer go to their farms in many food-bearing areas in the country.
Many farmers pay levies before they are allowed to go to their farms.Some even prepare the farms belonging to the bandits before they are allowed to work on their own.
On the national assembly buying N110 billion bullet proof vehicles for members, Aisabor said the lawmakers are not there for the people but to serve their selfish interest, advising them not to put Nigerians to the wall
He however called on the federal government to come up with a more comprehensive and sustainable package to deal with the fallouts from the removal of fuel subsidy if the ordinary people really matter in the country.