The aftermath of fuel subsidy removal has seen the Nigerian state availing the public with its latest policy called ‘Palliatives’ or “Palliatives for Poor Nigerians”.
This has become a sing song among the poor masses and, at the same time, a buzzing word in the newsroom for editors or On Air Radio Presenters (AOP) to dissect.
Poor Nigerians in the true sense actually look forward to receiving these palliatives, due to the impact of over three months fuel subsidy removal on cost of living demanding government’s concrete measures.
However, the way palliatives are being talked about by the government is raising hope and at the same time suspicion and fear among the populace that this could be another government’s project that would only be read in newspapers, seen on TV and heard on radio just like many of their unfulfilled political campaign promises.
Nevertheless, the Federal Government in its determination to walk the talk on palliatives, approved N5 billion for each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to enable them procure food items for distribution to the poor in their respective states.
This was made known by
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, shortly after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, recently.
The announcement was cheering, going by the hike in the cost of food items across the country in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal. We were informed the money given to all the 36 states and FCT Abuja was N180 billon as loan and grant. This was in addition to five trucks of rice to each state government and the FCT.
According to Governor Zulum, the money is for each state and the FCT Abuja to procure 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize, and fertilisers.
He further explained that 52 per cent of the money was given to the state governments as grants with 48 per cent as loans.
Many Nigerians would agree that with the current economic difficulties in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal, the federal government means well for its citizens by taking measures to cushion the adverse effects of the subsidy removal.
As earlier mentioned in this piece, the same poor Nigerians have raised fear concerning how the palliatives would get to them in the 36 states and the FCT.
This is as a result of mistrust and loss of faith in government’s policies, essentially, because government’s funds have not been judiciously used for the well-being of the masses in the past, especially now that the poor are hard hit by economic hardship.
The fear being expressed by the people about the government’s failure to evenly distribute the palliatives to them is not misplaced because we have had situations in the past where governors diverted palliatives meant for impoverished Nigerians to their friends, families and political associates.
The COVID-19 palliatives were warehoused and kept away from the poor by the same state governments that were supposed to distribute them to them until the people broke into the warehouses and looted them.
In the same vein, many of the 2022 flood victims across the states were not catered for, as palliatives meant for them were stored away only to resurface during the 2023 general elections campaign period.
Sadly, a lot of the so-called state governors and federal government officials care less if these palliatives end up in the pockets of the few influential individuals in their states.
Again, many Nigerians are doubting if governors that could not be trusted, failing to pay minimum wage, can ensure palliatives distribution, questioning why they should be charged with the implementation of the scheme.
The biggest challenge seems to be the overbearing influence of governors on their people, thereby creating an air of suspense at the subnational levels.
Apart from the governors’ excessive influence on the state administration, they have also been severally accused of frustrating some federal projects in their domains, hijacking and diverting funds meant for local governments, including funds meant for ecological projects.
Unfortunately, efforts by successive central governments to halt this diversion and correct this rascality have not achieved the desired result.
Why many Nigerians may never trust the governors is practically seen in the way the state chief executives have stunted development at the local government level, “pocketing” their funds.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari gave a vivid explanation to this in a parley with members of the Senior Executive Course No. 44 (2022) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja early this year.
Buhari cited a personal experience involving an unnamed governor, whom he described as “terrible”. The governor received funds on behalf of councils and remitted only half of it to the council chairmen who pilfered the remnants, leaving nothing for developmental projects.
This explains why governors at this point are not to be trusted with distribution of palliatives to poor people in their states.
This has raised the critical question that resonates on the governed of how these governors failed to lift their states out of the sorry state of the embarrassing level of poverty and infrastructural decay.
What we are saying here is that, the governors are central to the successful distribution of palliatives to their people, and failure to do so means more hardship from fuel subsidy removal.
Olamilekan, political economist, writes from Abuja via [email protected]
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