VOICE AIR MEDIA News Update
An analyst, Ayo Ologun has told the federal government to adopt measures that will cut across every Nigerians and not civil servants alone, in their process of cushioning the effect of subsidy removal on Nigerians.
He advised Federal government to adopt the measures that will be of benefit to both young and old citizens of Nigerians.
Ologun in his advice to the Federal government on Radio station, in Osogbo ,on Thursday, said that the government should put out means of transportation that will be less in cost to the people.
He further said that Federal government should re-evaluate the school feeding system which will help to lessen the burden of feeding on parents.
Also, he said Federal government should look for how they can reduce the cost of accomodation, that high cost of accomodation is a problem that has been on Nigerians and they are not taking it serious.
Ologun said, “For example you can begin to roll out buses, that can convey students so long you any student you see in uniform, they can enter the bus at a fix rate different from what is obtainable in the state or in the city.
“From one point to the other for example in Osogbo if Korope is charging two hundred or three hundred Naira depending on the distance.
“Then, you can say that irrespective of the distance within the city just like in Ikirun , in Ejigbo and the rest of them, if anybody is seen in school uniform, if you are a school student once you enter that bus, you are not paying more than fifty naira.
“This in turn will lessen the burden on those parents of those wards because they will be spending less on the transportation of their wards.
“And they can use that money on some other things that will cushion the effect of the fuel subsidy removal on them.
“Number two, we need to possibly re-evaluate the school feeding sytem, because it’s been more of a fraud before now, we need to possibly re-evaluate it and begin to give proper food to the student in school within a specific age and as such parent can spend less on how much they use to feed their ward.
“If you know that your ward can have two meals in school maybe breakfast and lunch before they leave school at three or four pm, and it is quality meal, then you can begin to invest less on what the ward eat because you know they can be given quality food at school.
“If that process will not be abuse by those who try to make gain from every policy of the government.
“For Civil servant instead of increasing your salary in the immediate term can every organization of government, whether the federal or the state government can we roll out transportation system?
“Whereby workers can meet at one point and you know that from that point to your working place could be free of charge or could be fifty naira or hundred naira as the case may be this will lessen the burden on people.
“And that will have its influence on the non-civil service cader like the rest of us.
“The government need to quickly look at how they can reduce the cost of accomodation for all caders across the country, this is a problem that is on us that we are not taking serious.
“If the federal government does the needful and the state government collaborate in bringing down the cost of living in terms of cost of house rent.
“Then we can begin to look at the market rate, how do we bring down the cost of food prices these are things that can be done in the immediate that will cut across beneficially to all caders of the society and not necessarily the civil servant as it may be.”