VAM News Update

THE Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, says he disagrees with those arguing that the proposed N8,000 palliative by the Federal Government won’t do much to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on poor Nigerians.

While speaking on Channels TV this evening July 21, the governor insisted that N8,000 is a lot of money for so many poor families in the country who don’t get to see such an amount in a month.

“We were sharing only N5,000 and believe me there were so many people that were waiting for that N5,000 every month. Indeed there were some communities that were able to do some kind of contributions and they were able to do a lot in their various communities. So, N8,000 may not be so much money to some people, but it is a lot to so many other people who are from very poor families that don’t see N8,000 every month. So, the only thing is that let us identify those families” Governor Sule said

VAM had reported earlier that President Tinubu in a letter to the House of Representatives, stated that N8000 will be disbursed to 12 million families as part of measures to cushion the economic hardship being experienced by many Nigerians as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.

In a meeting on Thursday, the National Executive Council (NEC) agreed on palliative measures for Nigerians. In the meeting which was chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima and also attended by governors of the 36 states of the Federation, NEC agreed that cash transfers would be done via state social registers instead of national social registers subject to state peculiarities. Governor Sule admitted that there were issues with the national social register, adding that there were cases where people who were not supposed to be in the social register collecting funds from the government.

He, however, said that the governors are not saying that the national social register should be discarded but that areas where amendments are needed should be looked into.