An Igbo interest group, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has condemned plans by President Bola Tinubu to pay N8,000 to 12 million households as subsidy palliative.
The N8,000 stipend is to be paid monthly within a duration of six months to homes of low income earners.
Speaking via a press statement signed by its President General, Goodluck Ibem, the group described the plan as a Greek gift.
They insisted that it is impossible for a meagre sum of N8,000 to thoroughly cushion the hardship caused by the fuel subsidy removal.
The group said: “It is a Greek Gift for President Tinubu to say he wants to pay 12 million Nigerians N8000 a month when he is the same person that makes it impossible to use N8000 just to cook a pot of soup for a family of three, by removing fuel subsidy which has been paid for till July 2023 by the former administration.”
Speaking further, they alleged that Tinubu’s plan was simply to siphon the resources of the nation.
They insisted that it was the same thing ploy the former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq did under president Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“This was the same thing the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq did, under President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The said Minister was collecting N500 billion every month from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, for the same purpose Tinubu wants to start now, but no household was seen benefiting from the said programme. It was just a conduit pipe used to loot the nation’s treasury dry.”
“Nigerians are not finding it easy to feed, pay transport fares and take care of other necessities as the prices of goods and services have skyrocketed because of the increased cost of fuel, diesel and other petroleum products.
“Nigerians are sick and tired of being deceived by those in power.
“We want programmes that will have a direct bearing on the people and not what will lead Nigerians into more suffering and abject poverty as is being experienced today because of the removal of fuel subsidy,” they added.
