ADC: Tinubu’s $1 bn social fund, political, reaction to Atiku’s subsidy plan

• Says Tinubu has lost Nigerians

By Lateef Ibrahim Abuja

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the Federal Government’s announcement of a $1 billion social protection programme as a panic reaction to its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s plan to introduce targeted production subsidy in order to bring down the cost of living if elected.

The party accused President Bola Tinubu of impoverishing millions of Nigerians through what it described as failed economic policies and then attempting to “buy them back” with what it described as a hurriedly contrived palliative few months to elections.

The opposition party said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi in Abuja .

The ADC questioned where the government suddenly found the money after three years of asking Nigerians to endure hardship, while also demanding clarity on the programme’s funding, questioning the role of the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu in the launch of the programme.

The statement by Abdullahi reads,

“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has noted the announcement by the Federal Government of a $1 billion social protection programme, unveiled by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.

“We find this sudden discovery of compassion, and money, quite remarkable.

“For three years, Nigerians have cried under the weight of food prices, transport costs and collapsing purchasing power, while this government insisted that there was no money to cushion the effects of its reforms.

“Now that elections are approaching, it has suddenly found $1 billion for the poor.

“If the government could somehow conjure up this money, why did it remain indifferent to the suffering of Nigerians for three years? Or did the poor only become visible when their votes become valuable?

“Even more instructive is the Tinubu government’s own admission that Nigerians now require protection from the economic shocks associated with its failed reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidy.

“This is precisely what our Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has been saying in proposing a targeted production subsidy to bring down the cost of living.

“The government dismissed that proposal and its officials told Nigerians that subsidy, in whatever form, was impossible.

“Yet, almost immediately, it has announced a billion-dollar programme to support Nigerians from the consequences of its evil policies.

“Why did it take Atiku’s widely accepted plan for this wicked government to remember that economic reforms must protect human beings?

“Nigerians will not forget that President Tinubu’s ill-conceived and terribly executed reforms have made their lives a living hell.

“They will not forget that under Tinubu, economic reforms, seven out of ten Nigerians have found it difficult to feed themselves; that businesses have collapsed; that Nigeria has became one of the top poorest countries of the world; that mortuaries have become fuller, that the blood of Nigerians have flowed freely under this administration.

“No amount of palliative, by whatever fancy names they are called, will make them forget this painful period.

“There is also the small matter of accountability, which this administration has found quite abhorrent.

“The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs says that more than N600 billion has already been disbursed in cash transfers over the last three years, reaching slightly more than 10 million households.

“What evidence exists of actual beneficiaries, and what measurable impact did that N600 billion have? Have these numbers ever been independently verified?

“Every objective analyst, including international development agencies have lamented the catastrophic delivery of social intervention programmes in Nigeria, especially due to lack of robust, verifiable social register and mismanagement due to corruption. “This government has not told us what it is going to do differently. But no one is in doubt what this $1 billion intervention is about: a political programme by a government desperate to show something as the election approaches after spending three years getting richer while the people get poorer.

“A government whose so-called reform has destroyed purchasing power through higher food, fuel, transport and energy costs, cannot now return with a one-off N40,000 per family, which it cynically tagged “shock-response payment.” This makes one to wonder if this is not indeed a vote-buying programme.

“Which makes one to ask: What is the role of the First Lady in this programme? How come she is the one launching the Federal Government’s “social intervention programme”?

“While it is not unusual for the wife of the president to lend her voice to worthy humanitarian causes or even run her own pet projects, we find it quite strange that an unelected, and therefore unaccountable individual, is launching a social intervention programme involving $1 billion in the name of the Federal Government.

“This makes us to ask again: Is this a Federal Government programme or a project of the First Lady? Who exactly is funding it? Under which budget head or financing arrangement was the money approved? What was the approval process? Which public institution is the accounting authority? Who controls disbursement and who answers to the Auditor-General and the National Assembly?

“If these are public funds, what statutory authority does the Office of the First Lady have over them, if any? If the First Lady is merely unveiling the programme on behalf of the government, government should say so clearly.

“One billion dollars is public business, and public business requires transparency. Every expenditure of government can only be undertaken based on established guidelines by people constitutionally authorised to do so. Where does the First Lady fit in within the official organogram of government?

“The ADC supports every genuine effort to protect vulnerable Nigerians. But we do not think that Nigeria can build prosperity by manufacturing poverty through failed reforms and then distributing palliatives to its victims.

“The real choice before Nigerians is becoming clearer every day: between a government that is content on managing poverty and an alternative determined to restore purchasing power, production and dignity.

“If the Tinubu administration has suddenly discovered that Nigerians need protection from the cost of its failed reforms, then perhaps the first thing it should do is admit that Atiku was right: reform without relief is not courage; it is cruelty”, it said.