Subsidy removal: Palliatives not enough to tackle poverty says Shehu Sani

Shehu Sani, a former Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the 8th National Assembly, has described the N8,000 payments to the most vulnerable families and other forms of palliatives by the Federal Government to soften the impact of the fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians as barely enough.

Sani made his views known when he appeared as a guest on Channels Politics Today programme on Thursday.

The former senator’s views come especially as the country tries to deal with the impact that the fuel subsidy removal has had on Nigerians. An impact which followed the announcement of the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29.

The most visible outcome of this announcement saw the price of fuel move from N190 per litre in May to N500 in June, only for the commodity to move much higher after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) announced a further hike in price on Tuesday.

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Fuel now sells for way above N617 per litre in most petrol stations in the country.

Following the announcement of the removal of subsidy, President Tinubu had promised to introduce a series of measures to protect the most vulnerable families in the country from the devastating impact the high cost of living will have on them.

“Palliatives are not enough to address the problems of poverty in this country,” Shehu said. “Even if you go by the layout plan and you share N8,000 to a number of people, let us say 20 million, for a period of time, then what becomes of other Nigerians that are not within that cycle of beneficiaries?”

“What will become of Nigerians after expiration—the money has been exhausted? I believe that palliative measures should have both short-term and long-term issues.”

Sani, however, asked the Federal Government to concentrate more on providing long-term solutions, such as the increase of workers’ salaries, as well as providing support to farmers.

During the course of the interview, the former senator condemned the government’s plan to retrieve the loan from the World Bank and share it with Nigerians as suicidal.