News

Subsidy Removal: Roll Out Palliative Measures, ActionAid Tells Tinubu

Published

12 months ago

June 4, 2023

Editor

As Nigerians groan over the removal of fuel subsidy, ActionAid Nigeria, AAN, has on President Bola Tinubu to immediately provide palliative measures to reduce the impact on Nigerians.

The call was made by the Country Director, AAN, Ene Obi, in an address during a press conference on the issue of subsidy removal and the plight of Nigerians.

Obi who was represented by the Director of Resource Mobilization, ActionAid Nigeria, Andrew Memedu, where Tinubu was made to understand that his declaration had thrown millions of Nigerians into untold hardship, which also businesses have been negatively impacted.

Meanwhile, AAN also pointed out that Tinubu also failed to “acknowledge the inadequacies of the electoral umpire and the marred February 25th General Elections that brought him to power as the fifth democratically elected president of Nigeria. Instead, the president hailed the election as the best election since the Fourth Republic.”

Therefore, CSO described the President’s speech on the February 25 presidential election, which AAN was an observer as “unacceptable”, and condemn it, accusing the President of “erroneously” opined outcome of the election as a reflection of the will of Nigerians.

The statement pointed out that the President failed to acknowledge and accept the many violence that characterized the election which took the lives of many and disenfranchised thousands of eligible voters.

She said: “In his (Tinubu) speech, the President also made a far-reaching statement – “subsidy is gone”-concerning the subsidy regime of the country which immediately plunged the already impoverished Nigerians into untold hardship.

“This statement was welcomed with reckless reactions from oil marketers – hoarding petrol products and in many cases, selling petroleum products at unregulated prices.

“Less than 48hours after the inauguration speech, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Ltd jumped on the President’s announcement and released a national price list for Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) – capping the new price between N488-N550 per liter.

“The removal of petrol subsidy undoubtedly has significant adverse effect on Nigerians and this ranges from increased transportation cost, higher cost of living, inflation, reduced purchasing power, social unrest, as well as heightened level of crime and criminality.

“Also, a critical underlining negative impact of the removal of petrol subsidy is that it is certainly going to widen poverty bracket in Nigeria, particularly amongst the poor masses and the excluded citizens with the ravaging unemployed youth.

“We acknowledge the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari administration to resuscitate the 4 abandoned refineries with all the funding voted to it.

“We think the focus is to think of bringing that investment back to life. The question is, how can a nation so endowed by such natural resources, not refined its products and now asking citizens to pay the price.

“Now the new President comes and says, no discussion as if there we have committed a crime against our leaders.

“As advocates of human rights, ActionAid Nigeria makes its recommendations to the Federal Government as follows: Resuscitate the four refineries to create more jobs to engage the volume of young people of Nigeria; We need to first establish, review and investigate what makes up this subsidy with citizens, organized labour involved, CSOs and stakeholders in a transparent investigative process, as government inefficiencies should not be passed to the citizens as subsidy.

“Review the Social Protection programme for the most vulnerable which was started by the past administration. Remember that the survey on multi-dimensional survey by the National Bureau of Statistics stated that more than 133m Nigerians live below the poverty line. This was before the flooding last year that affected more than 31 states. Government must also ensure that women, young persons and Persons with Disability are specially considered in the Social Protection Programme.

“Promote alternative energy sources like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to reduce the reliance on petrol by all.Immediately provide affordable and safe public transportation system across the country.

“In conclusion, the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria presents a huge challenge and the untold hardship has been reported from different parts of the country. ActionAid Nigeria stands firm in our commitment to advocate for the protection of the most vulnerable and marginalized during this transition.

“We call on the government to prioritize social protection measures, invest in critical sectors, and ensure transparency in the utilization of saved resources.

“Together, let us work towards a Nigeria where the well-being and dignity of every citizen is upheld.”

News

Economic Hardship: Pastor Suspends Collection Of Offerings Church[VIDEO]

Published

42 mins ago

May 19, 2024

Editor

A pastor in Lagos state has caught the eyes of Nigerians after announcing the suspension of offering collection in his church.

In a trending video, the pastor could be seen telling his church members that henceforth, offerings will no longer be collected because of the situation of the country.

He stated that in these times that people spend more money to buy petrol and pay more for transportation, it would be unfair to collect offerings from them.

He said until the petrol price is reduced, his church will not collect money from its congregation. He called on all pastors to stop collecting offerings from their congregation.

Watch the video below:

News

Shettima Launches NEDC’s School Enrollment Drive Programme

Published

14 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Vice President Kashim Shettima has launched the Accelerated Senior Secondary School Education Programme (ASSEP) initiated by the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) in collaboration with the office of the VP to enhance child enrollment drive in schools within the North-East sub-region.

Speaking during the launching of the programme in Bauchi on Saturday, the VP said that consequences of the nation’s action and inaction were evident in all indices used to assess development.

He said while primary education provides a foundation, secondary education is a bridge, adding that the Northeast sub-region has been the victim of inability to enforce a uniform policy to drive school and the persistent cultural perversion to formal education in the country.

“We in the Northeast occupy a quantum of position in ranking of essential services. Education being a key sector of this country, this is especially pronounced in the post primary education, while the Northeast secondary school enrollment drive stands at 19 percent, far below the nation’s 39 percent,” he said.

Earlier, the Managing Director of NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, said that the primary education completion level of 85 per cent in the Northeast is among the best in Nigeria, but secondary school enrolment is a mere 15 per cent, the second worst nationally.

According to him, due to the challenges in the post-primary education segment, JAMB UTME applications and admissions into tertiary institutions in 2019 were the lowest for the Northeast compared to other regions.

He added that, nationally, the Northeast has the lowest number of teachers and the highest percentage 55 per cent of those available are without literacy skills.

The MD also revealed that the challenges in the post-primary education segment include weak quality indices and a wide demand-supply gap driven by economic and cultural factors.

“The Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Programme seeks to boost the post primary education rating across the North East region through improved enrolment into tertiary institutions.

“It’s also to improve skills development as well as the elevation of teacher quality. It would pay special focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and communication.

“These would foster creativity and critical thinking; motivates and inspires young people to generate new technologies and ideas to learn from inquiry-based tasks,” he said.

Alkali also explained that the programme would also raise awareness about after-school possibilities and the potential for diligent students to become successful and prominent contributors to the North East region and Nigeria at large.

He expressed gratitude to the Federal Government especially, the Vice President for the deep interest and commitment to human development in the North-East.

News

Edo Police Break Silence On Operatives Fighting Dirty In Viral Video

Published

14 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

By Joseph Ebi Kanjo

The Edo State Police Command says a trending video showing two operatives of the command engaging in a fight is a handiwork of mischief makers.

In the video which has gone viral on the internet, two policemen are seen fighting themselves, while a voice commentary in the background claims they are from the Igueben Decisional Police Station headquarters in the state.

A writeup also attached to a version of the video sighted by Info Daily also claims that the policemen were fighting because of sharing formula of money collected from motorists on the highway. The writeup also claims that the incident happened yesterday, May 17th, 2024.

But reacting to the viral video in a statement issued by SP Chidi Nwabuzor, Police Public Relations Officer, the command said contrary to the claim, the incident happened in 2020, adding that disciplinary measures were taken against the erring policemen.

The statement which issued electronically to newsmen in Benin on Saturday evening partly reads: “Edo State Police Command wishes to inform the general public that it’s aware of a video trending on the internet showing two policemen that engaged themselves in a fight in public spaces and wishes to state as follows that;

“The now trending video happened in April 2020 in a community called Ebelle in the Igueben local government area of Edo State.

“The two erring policemen, namely; (i) F/NO.491112 CPL Ozimeade Aidonojie and (ii) F/NO. 516384 PC Salubi Stephen were attached to Ebelle Police Divisional Headquarters.

“They defaulted, tried in an orderly and upon conviction dismissed from the Force for the offence of discreditable conduct contrary to Paragraph ‘E’ Sub Section 111 of the Police Act and Regulations 370 Cap. P19 of Federation of Nigeria 2004.”

Nwabuzor in the statement reiterated the state Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adegboye, commitment to “making Edo State a desired secured state where the law abiding citizens and the general public go about their lawful businesses in making Edo State economic hubs of Nigeria without fear or intimidation.”