By Jude Michael
An Igbo interest group, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, has faulted plans by President Bola Tinubu to pay N8,000 to 12 million households as subsidy palliative.
The group in a press release signed by its President General, Mr Goodluck Ibem, described the plan as a Greek gift.
The group said a monthly N8, 000 could never thoroughly cushion the hardship the removal of petroleum subsidy was causing in the lives of Nigerians.
The group said: ‘It is a Greek Gift for President Tinubu to say he wants to pay 12 million Nigerians N8, 000 a month when he is the same person that makes it impossible to use N8, 000 just to cook a pot of soup for a family of three by removing fuel subsidy which has been paid for till July 2023 by the former administration.
‘The plan of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pay 12 million households N8, 000 for 6 months is another plot to siphon the resources of the nation. This was the same thing the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, did under (former) President Muhammadu Buhari.
‘The said Minister was collecting N500 billion every month from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for the same purpose Tinubu wants to start now, but no household was seen benefiting from the said programme. It was just a conduit pipe used to loot the nation’s treasury dry.’
The group said Nigerians were tired of hearing such programmes, adding that the programme would bring hardship and suffering to Nigerians instead of the better life the president was promising.
‘Nigerians are not finding it easy to feed, pay transport fares and take care of other necessities as the prices of goods and services have skyrocketed because of the increased cost of fuel, diesel and other petroleum products.
‘Nigerians are sick and tired of being deceived by those in power. We want programmes that will have direct bearing on the people and not what will lead Nigerians into more suffering and abject poverty as is being experienced today because of the removal of fuel subsidy.’
