A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has slammed the Federal Government over a proposed N8,000 monthly stipend billed to 12 million Nigerians.
According to Tribune, Onuesoje made this criticism while reacting to the development on Thursday in Warri, Delta State, describing it as the height of insensitivity and callousness.
He said, Coming to say he (President Bola Tinubu) is going to give 12 million poor Nigerians a token of N8,000k on a monthly basis for six months after almost two months of economic hardship is the height of insensitivity and lack of proper planning by the president.
“Why seek a loan to provide palliative instead of investing in infrastructure and inter-state transport for poor Nigerians, and what is stopping the Federal Government from fixing the four refineries currently in comatose?
“It is the height of insensitivity and callousness to remove subsidies without putting plans in place immediately to cushion the effects of such a drastic policy,” the former governorship aspirant reiterated.
Speaking on the removal of fuel subsidies, Chief Onuesoke, who noted that it was long overdue, berated President Tinubu as lacking the moral rectitude to implement the fuel subsidy removal policy due to his antagonism in 2012 during the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“In all honesty, the removal of the petrol subsidy is long overdue; in fact, any serious government should know that continuing the subsidy regime due to sentiments is like shifting the evil days, which would eventually spell doom.
“My concern is that President Bola Tinubu lacks the moral compass to be the one implementing subsidy removal, having led the protest in 2012 to shut down the removal of subsidies under President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency.
“However, now that we have found ourselves where he is now the president of the country, we can give him the benefit of the doubt to be the one to implement it, but his implementation strategy is insensitive and insincere.
“Firstly, a serious government would have put measures in place after a very thorough consultation and orientation with the Nigerian people before outright scrapping the subsidy.
“Because of his ego to demonstrate he is in charge of things, he made a pronouncement that threw Nigerians into a state of pandemonium, causing serious social-economic hardship on ordinary Nigerians due to a high surge in prices of transportation and other household and everyday items due to an inflationary reaction to the price of petroleum products,” he lamented.
