Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has approved N10,000 monthly subsidy allowances for workers and pensioners on the payroll of the state government.
His Chief of Staff, Dr. Edgar Sunday, who doubles as the Chairman of the Special Committee on Mitigating the Effect of Fuel Subsidy Removal, announced this yesterday at the Government House in Yola.
He said the beneficiaries are to enjoy the benefit for six months.
Also, Kwara State Governor AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq and his Benue State counterpart, Rev. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, have appealed for calm, promising to unveil palliatives to cushion the impacts of fuel subsidy removal.
Fintiri also approved full implementation of the National Minimum Wage for local government employees, beginning from August salary.
The governor, Sunday said, had also approved procurement of 70 trucks of maize and 20 trucks of rice for distribution to residents of the state at subsidised rate.
“The government will also purchase 50 trucks of fertiliser specifically for workers at subsidised rate,” Sunday said.
According to him, part of the palliative package is a plan to buy shuttle buses to convey workers in Yola to the state secretariat in Jimeta as well as for inter-local government transportation.
The Chief of Staff said the measures were part of the recommendations submitted by the special committee constituted to examine the effect of subsidy removal on the lives of the residents, especially the workers.
Governor AbdulRazaq, who is the Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), said his administration would deploy more resources to make life easy for the people under the subsidy removal regime.
The governor spoke in Ilorin, the state capital, at a stakeholders’ meeting.
“At the moment, we will concentrate more on funding welfare programmes in order to keep the economy going and to enable the people to cope with the temporary discomfort. This means we’ll slow down on other things that do not specifically address this need.
“We have rolled out several palliatives that cover different sectors, including medical workers, teachers, small and medium scale. Those who are not immediately covered will be taken on board very soon.
“We appeal for patience. We are working with the Federal Government to ease the temporary pains of the removal of fuel subsidy. Very soon, things will normalise and we will be better for it,” he said.
Those at the meeting included ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders, stakeholders, and community leaders.
Others at the meeting were Deputy Governor Kayode Alabi, House of Assembly Speaker Yakubu Danladi Salihu, principal officers and members of the House of Assembly, APC Chairman, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, Ambassador Nuhu Mohammed and Senator Ahmed Mohammed.
In Benue State, Governor Alia appealed to the residents to be patient with his administration for the distribution of fuel subsidy palliatives.
Alia spoke at the 2023 national convention/mega reunion of St. James Minor Seminary Old Boys’ Association (SAJSOBA) on the school premises along Yandev-Makurdi Road.
The governor said the oil subsidy was meant to cushion the impact of subsidy removal, adding that for some reasons, it was hijacked and a few highly placed Nigerians took advantage of it while the common man suffered.
According to him, it became difficult that the nation was borrowing money to subsidise its oil for the common man.
The governor said his administration had formed committees and was discussing at various levels for the people to feel the government’s relief packages.
He said Federal Government would also come up with a policy statement on how the amelioration would go.
Alia sought understanding and patience among the people, saying the issues are much deeper and more involving than what they hear and read in newspapers.
He added that if the calibrations were not calculative enough, it would be easy for the system to get it wrong.
