Rep Urges FG To Use $800m Subsidy Palliative For Healthcare, Education

Rep has urged FG to use the $800m subsidy palliative for healthcare and education.

Glamtush reports that a federal lawmaker from Rivers State, Farah Dagogo, has called on the Federal Government to jettison its planned disbursement of $800 million to about 50 million Nigerians to serve as a cushion for the proposed Premium Motor Spirit subsidy removal.

This online newspaper learnt that he said instead the funds should be invested in critical sectors such as education and health that would be beneficial to the majority of Nigerians in the short, medium and long terms.

Dagogo who represents Degema/Bonny (Rivers State) federal constituency in the green chamber of the National Assembly said this in a statement issued in Port Harcourt on Friday morning.

The statement which was signed by Dagogo’s media aide, Ibrahim Lawal, noted that though the initiative by the Federal Government was well conceived, he doubted that if it held sway, the transparency of the proposed cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians couldn’t be guaranteed.

Glamtush reports that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, during the week said the FG had secured the sum of $800 million from the World Bank, as part of its post-subsidy palliative plans that would be distributed to 10 million households, which according to her was equivalent to about 50 million Nigerians.

But Dagogo, as part of his Easter Message, faulted some of the minister’s comments especially the assertion that the country already had a National Social Register for 10 million vulnerable households through which the $800 million will be distributed.

The federal lawmaker explained that as Nigerians joined the rest of the world to celebrate Easter, the underlying importance of the period which centres on sacrifices by Jesus Christ, ‘should be replicated by ensuring that the workability of the set aside $800 million from the World Bank was adhered to and reflected with transparency and honesty

The statement partly reads, “As Nigerians are sacrificing their fuel subsidy benefits, it should be for a general improvement in the educational and health sectors not some phantom list of name compilations already fraught with deceit.