By Charles Adingupu
A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has urged President Bola Tinubu to hasten the removal of bank charges and reduction in workers’ monthly contributions to pension schemes as part of the palliatives needed to cushion the effects of subsidy removal.
Mr. Chidoka, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made these suggestions on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
“We need to think beyond politics. When he (Tinubu) took a decision to remove subsidy and he removed fuel subsidy and the fuel prices rose by 100 and something naira to 500 and something naira in a day. What are the immediate measures that can be taken to make sure there is more cash in the pockets of people who go to work every day?” he queried.
“If I was thinking with him, I would have said immediately: remove the charges for bank transfers in Nigeria, the N26 and the N56, cut it immediately. That money goes to the banks and they are just enriching themselves… or make a flat rate of once a month, you can charge N100 for IT (Information Technology) support. So, that puts more money in the hands of people.
“Second one is that our pension scheme has accumulated a lot of money and that pension scheme now requires people to pay 12% of their salaries from the employers’ side.
“So, I’m think you can reduce the amount the people are contributing for a one-year period or six months to allow more money.
“That way, immediately from the next month salary, another N10,000, N5,000 as the case may be, enters into the pocket of the people who go to work every day. They are able to pay their transport fare because they need to go to work tomorrow. We can’t wait till when you take a decision (on ministerial appointments) to ameliorate the suffering,” he said.
The ex-minister also said the minimum wage needs to rise from the current rate of N30,000 to reflect the current economic realities and inflationary shocks.
According to him, though the Tinubu government removed subsidy from its day one in office, the administration inherited $3bn debt to be paid to fuel importers.
“The past is already facing him (Tinubu) because there is about $3bn owed to the fuel importers. The four major companies importing fuel to Nigeria have a debt of over $3bn and they haven’t been given enough crude to pay for those debt. So, he (Tinubu) has to pay the backlog of those debts,” Chidoka stated.
Furthermore, the PDP stalwart noted that the All Progressives Congress has not shown sensitivity to the Federal Character Principle in the last eight years.
He said the Federal Character Principle was “brutality violated in the past eight years”, saying that 18 military and paramilitary bodies were headed by people from a region of the country during the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“I find it objectionable for people who did not say a word when this country was brutally harangued by a government to now talk about issues of appointments and sensitivity in four weeks. I feel that that is a violation of decency,” he added.
On the distribution of the new service chiefs appointed by the President, Chidoka acknowledged that Tinubu has been fair in the distribution of appointment across the six geopolitical zones in the last four weeks in office but that the matter is unimportant.
He said the euphoria and reactions trailing the appointments were the result of “trauma suffered during Buhari’s tenure”.
He asked the President to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu just as he suspended the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
“It would have been totally unimportant if he faced what I considered the critical issues about Nigerians making their choices. For the kind of uproar that the election caused, the way he went after the CBN governor is the way I think he should have set up a panel to look into INEC,” he stated.
