8k Subsidy Removal Palliative: Nigerians are in Trouble!

For some of us who hold that 8k is a lifesaver in the lives of many financially vulnerable Nigerians, we will continue to state reasons why Nigerians who need the token are more than Nigerians who don’t need it. If you spit at the token from now till the next century, be told that those Nigerians who can make a living out of the token have not employed you as a megaphone of criticisms against the palliative.

You may be receiving curses from them as to why you want to block them from earning what they are entitled to as Nigerians since you’re rich enough but miserly to extend such tokenistic gesture to them.

Nigerians are in trouble, I repeat, not from the FG but from the media which constitutionally recognised responsibility is to inform, educate, entertain, set agenda and to make analysis of current issues of national concern for the understanding of Nigerians. However, Nigerian media have confused Nigerians on the issue of the subsidy removal palliative, misinforming them that all they are entitled to is 8k! At the twilight of the immediate administration of former President Muhammad Buhari, he sent the policy of subsidy removal palliative of 8k to the National Assembly for approval from the grant of 800 million dollars given to Nigeria by the World Bank. It wasn’t the current FG’s idea that most vulnerable Nigerians would receive the 8k. It was an arrangement Buhari made at the request of the World Bank. What’s now shocking is that the media have gone to town to associate the 8k intervention policy with the current FG, neglecting the action plan on food security, food pricing and sustainability rolled out by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The 500 Billion Náírà sought approval for from the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu is not meant for the 8k cash transfer. It’s meant for other interventions that Nigerians are set to enjoy.

As we speak, no section of the Nigerian media has been able to analyse for Nigerians what they stand to gain, or lose, from the FG’s action plan on food security. They’re unfortunately obsessed with the proposed 8k cash transfer as if it were the only benefit Nigerians will get on subsidy removal.

In the coming weeks, there will be rollouts of far-reaching interventions that all sections of Nigerians will enjoy to cushion the effects of subsidy removal. The committee set up by the FG on subsidy removal interventions has made recommendations which FG has been working on to bring succour to Nigerians. By the time the fruits of the current efforts are beginning to manifest, Nigerian workers, artisans, traders and private sector workers will be better placed as comfortable Nigerians.