Mr. Osita Chidoka
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was at the weekend urged to take quick steps towards ameliorating the biting effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on the masses. Osita Chidoka, a former Minister of Aviation, made this call on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, saying that such remedies should include removal of bank charges and reduction in the monthly contributions to pension schemes by workers.
Stated Chidoka, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ally of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar: “We need to think beyond politics. When he (Tinubu) took a decision to remove subsidy and he removed fuel subsidy and the fuel prices rose by 100 and something Naira to 500 and something Naira in a day. What are the immediate measures that can be taken to make sure there is more cash in the pockets of people who go to work every day?
“If I was thinking with him, I would have said immediately: remove the charges for bank transfers in Nigeria, the N26 and the N56, cut it immediately. That money goes to the banks and they are just enriching themselves… or make a flat rate of once a month, you can charge N100 for IT (Information Technology) support. So, that puts more money in the hands of people.
“Second one is that our pension scheme has accumulated a lot of money and that pension scheme now requires people to pay 12% of their salaries from the employers’ side.
“So, I’m thinking you can reduce the amount the people are contributing for a one-year period or six months to allow more money.
“That way, immediately from the next month salary, another N10,000, N5,000 as the case may be, enters into the pocket of the people who go to work every day. They are able to pay their transport fare because they need to go to work tomorrow. We can’t wait till when you take a decision (on ministerial appointments) to ameliorate the suffering”.
The ex-minister also said the minimum wage needed to rise from the current rate of N30,000 to reflect the current economic realities and inflationary shocks.
He said though, the Tinubu government removed subsidy from its day one in office, the administration inherited $3 billion debt to be paid to fuel importers.
Noted he: “The past is already facing him (Tinubu) because there is about $3 billion owed to the fuel importers. The four major companies importing fuel to Nigeria have a debt of over $3 billion and they haven’t been given enough crude to pay for those debt. So, he (Tinubu) has to pay the backlog of those debts”.
Furthermore, the PDP stalwart noted that the All Progressives Congress had not shown sensitivity to the Federal Character Principle in the last eight years.
He said the Federal Character Principle was “brutality violated in the past eight years”, pointing out that 18 military and paramilitary bodies were headed by people from a region of the country during the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
Added he: “I find it objectionable for people who did not say a word when this country was brutally harangued by a government to now talk about issues of appointments and sensitivity in four weeks. I feel that that is a violation of decency”.
On the distribution of the new service chiefs appointed by the President, Chidoka acknowledged that Tinubu had been fair in the distribution of appointments across the six geo-political zones in the last four weeks in office but that matter was unimportant.
He described the euphoria and reactions trailing the appointments as being spread across the six geopolitical zones as based on the “trauma suffered during Buhari’s tenure”.
Stated Chidoka: “I think they’ve been fair in trying to (spread) appointments across the country. I think it’s being largely fair but it’s unimportant”.
He asked the President to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, just as he suspended the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
Said he: “It would have been totally unimportant if he faced what I considered the critical issues about Nigerians making their choices. For the kind of uproar that the election caused, the way he went after the CBN governor is the way I think he should have set up a panel to look into INEC”.
