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Due to the current economic downturn Nigeria is witnessing, the call for support for masses by different strata of government in the country has increased as larger percentage of the population now demand for support from government to be able to earn a living or cater for themselves.
On his inauguration day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy, a move many have seen as a catalyst to the hike in food prices and essential commodities across the country.
On October 1st 2023, the President further announced some methods to cushion the effect of the hardtime in the country and one of such is the provision of palliatives to sub-national government in helping to reduce the perceived hunger in Nigeria.
However, since that time, effort being carried out by the federal government, State government and even the local tier of government in the county has not been seen as enough to help the nation and her people out of the hunger the citizens are suffering from.
Just yesterday, the Nigeria Labour Congress had to lead a protest to show their grievance and displeasure on what the nation is currently passing through.
At a Senate session recently, the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio announced an unverified report that a federal government agency ‘FIRS’ gave each of the 36 state’s of the federation and FCT 30bn each for support to cushion the effect of economic hardship in their state’s, a development that had generated huge controversy in the public but already denied by the Vice Chairman Nigeria Governor’s Forum and Oyo State Governor, Egnr Seyi Makinde while his counterpart from the home state of the Senate President ‘Akwa Ibom’ also denied receiving any such amount. Even though, during the week, the Senate President has come out to publicly apologise for misleading the public with an unverified report.
These and many more reasons are why PrimeReportersNG has gathered facts and figures concerning the Palliative measures being carried by both the Federal and State Government.
The following are the 11 obvious facts about the FG – STATE PALLIATIVES MEASURES as gathered from the National Economic Council and Nigeria Governor’s Forum;
●At the National Economic Council (NEC), FG announced palliative support of N5 Billion to States Government
●Out of the N5 Billion, N2 Billion was released as a loan to be repaid by the States;
● The balance of N3 Billion was not released till date;
● FG later released bags of rice ranging from two to three thousand for each States of the federation;
● Just recently, the FG writes the states to refund the N2 Billion palliatives loan;
● The FG also released from Federation Account N7 Billion to states for infrastructure intervention
● The N7 Billion however belong to the State Government as parts of almost a trillion naira owes states by FG from the Federation Account;
● So the N7 Billion was not a gift from the FG, but part of the payment for state fund owed the states by the FG
● Hence, the N7 Billion was and is being spent by states on infra upgrades;
● The N2 billion, which states are now being asked to repay are spent by many states on wage awards, new transport buses, and further palliatives;
●Hence, beyond the rice and maize from the national grain reserve, the FG has not committed more than the N2 billion loan to each state of the federation.
These data are figures are obtained from the National Economic Council and Nigeria Governor’s Forum governance file.
As the conversation about accountability of palliative measures carried out by each government are being called for by citizens of the country, a Nigerian Governor, Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has come out to shed more light on his management of state resources including palliative measures initiated by his administration and those supported by the Federal Government.
Responding to reports and questions raised by some groups in recent days, the State Governor through his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed urged commentators to always avail themselves of publicly available facts about government programmes so as not to be perceived as serving opposition interest.
“On palliative distribution in Osun State, we urge the civil society to always engage in thorough field review before taking positions especially as most of the questions raised could have been answered either through desk research or direct freedom of Information request to the relevant government agencies.
“Rice distribution was handled by a non-governmental committee chaired by Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria and populated by representatives of various non-governmental groups. The inauguration of the committee and their activities were widely covered by the media.
He also emphasized that the Osun State government is currently embarking on multiple government programmes which have at its core palliative interventions such as “the wage awards for pensioners and workers that is going to run for six months, sustenance of payment of half salary and pension debt inherited from previous government, the three billion naira plus cooperative loans for artisans and small businesses, the soft medical programmes like the free medical surgeries for pensioners, expansion of free grants to the poor of the poor in Osun state and expected delivery of new buses to widen transport access and affordability.”
” In the interest of educated discourse, It may interest the group to note that Osun is spending far above the said two billion naira which is a loan to states and which the Federal Government has even asked the state governments to start refunding.”
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