By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has called on the government of President Bola Tinubu to take the bulk of the proposed $10 billion to be saved as a result of fuel subsidy removal, to address challenges arising from it.
Falana, in an interview on Channels TV’s politics Today, said the $800m being proposed by the World Bank would go nowhere and “that is why the government will have to take the bulk of the $10bn being saved to address the challenges of subsidy removal.”
Falana lamented that over 143 million Nigerians are in extreme poverty and that these must be catered for because of the biting effect of fuel subsidy.
He added: “Secondly, we must also look at statutory palliatives welfare programmes already decreed by law for implementation by the government. For instance, they are supposed to have a national insurance scheme for Nigerians, is it working? You have pension funds act. Why are people still queuing up to collect pension?”
Falana said the last one month had been moments of challenges, due to the removal of fuel subsidy, which the Buhari administration refused to implement.
“But the Bola Tinubu Administration took Nigerian by surprise when he announced the removal in his inaugural speech as president. An announcement was made to the fact that fuel’ subsidy was gone forever, the reverberating effects of the policy have been felt by people, particularly the wretched of the earth and the poor.
“Therefore, the government has been compelled to declare its intention to roll out some palliatives. On the part of the labour movement and civil society organizations, they’re asking the government to consider alternatives, alternative economic programmes as opposed to the Washington consensus or the policies dictated by the IMF and World Bank,” he stated.
According to Falana, “The government will have to move speedily to address the suffering of the people, undeserved pains inflicted on the people, because of the irresponsibility of the Nigerian ruling class.”
