A former Labour Party governorship Candidate in Bayelsa, Udengs Eradiri, has urged President Bola Tinubu to channel funds saved from the removal of fuel subsidies to development agencies across the country.
Mr Eradiri, who spoke on the sidelines of the Alternative Conflict Resolution programme organised by the Niger Delta Development Commission in Port Harcourt, said the current practice of sending the subsidy funds to the governors had not achieved the desired impact.
He said routing the funds through development agencies would help the gains of subsidy removal reach the people faster and facilitate the actualisation of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of the president.
He stated that the development agencies were established by the president to perform some of the functions of the governors in the region and were therefore entitled to utilise the subsidy funds.
“I call on President Tinubu as part of actualising the Renewed Hope Agenda, to redirect the excess money from the subsidy removal to the development agencies covering the entire stretch of the country in all the geopolitical zones.
“The presidency can now supervise them to ensure that the subsidy gains get to the masses and solve their problems. When this excess subsidy is sent to the governors as is being done now, the President does not have control over how it is spent.
“The president cannot monitor if this money is being used judiciously, and that is why we are having many conflicts all over the country, and the people are complaining that they have not seen the dividends of democracy,” Mr Eradiri.
He added, “If the president cannot redirect all the money, he can send 50 per cent to the governors and local governments and the rest to the development agencies. These agencies were set up to carry out some duties of the governors. If the subsidy windfall is redirected to the agencies, they will use it according to the dictates of the president.
”They can be supervised by the president to ensure the money gets to the grassroots. If the federal government does that, there will be fewer complaints from the people.”
(NAN)
