- Tasks FG to cushion effects of fuel subsidy on Nigerians
From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
The Atayero of Aramoko-Ekiti, Ekiti West Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Dr Olusegun Aderemi, has described the Student loan bill that was recently signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a welcome development, saying it will provide many Nigerians, especially youths the opportunity to go to school.
Dr Aderemi who is also a Lagos-based industrialist, stated this in his Aramoko- Ekiti country home at the weekend at an event to celebrate his birthday anniversary, where he tasked the present administration in the country to institute modalities that will remove the hard effects of fuel subsidy, noting that the masses are suffering due to the subsidy removal.
“I thank God for the opportunity so far and for giving me good life when I say good life, it’s not about the luxury of life, I am talking about God’s protection and the opportunity to know what is right and where I belong to, For the past three years, I have made up my mind that since I belong to this community, everything about me is about this community, I will be celebrating my birthday in this community. I pray to almighty God to give me the opportunity to celebrate many more years “.
Commenting on the student loan bill recently signed into law, Dr Aderemi said, “Whichever way you look at it, education is number one just as safety is important, if the government is talking about giving loans to people to go and study, it is a right step in the right direction, it will reduce social vices in the country when people are educated, they will be able to project, and when they are able to project, they will be able to progress and when there is progress, there would be sanity in all ramifications, it is only those that are not educated, that are looking for other means of survival. Student loans will give a lot of families the opportunity to send their children/wards to school. There won’t be complaints that I cannot go to school because I don’t have money. Government is here to help now to become a better person in society and these are the handiwork of a democrat. In the past, we have had a lot of governments and they never thought about that, it is a welcome development and would help the society,” he stated.
Speaking on President Tinubu’s decisions taken since assumption of office, among which are suspension of some key government officials in the country for crucial investigations, Dr Aderemi said, “This is about the first time in our own lifetime we would have a true democrat becoming the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the person of President Bola Tinubu. All our agitations, and aspirations as far as democracy and dividends are concerned, this is the time we would have it because all democrats are known for giving back dividends of democracy that’s how it’s happening in a lot of places where there are democrats and I want to believe that Nigeria will not be an exception, we are on the right path, there is no doubt that our country is a developing country, the democratic government we have had in the past tried their best, now, this true democrat will give us what we want as far as democracy is concerned. As a direct descendent of Oduduwa, I believe that we would get what we want, this is our time!
“Talking about the actions the present government has taken, I want to believe that the action is in the right direction, as far as fuel subsidy is concerned, the removal of fuel subsidy is not the handiwork of this present government, the fuel subsidy has been removed by the last administration, just patching it for relief, of course, it was made public that by the end of June, there won’t be fuel subsidy, knowing fully well that by May 29 they are gone, the present government has actually leveraged on that path to make the pronouncement on the day of the inauguration. Subsidy is a fraud that has been identified, it has been known for a very long time because of the perpetrators, the highly powerful people behind it, they were not able to control it, it ought to have been controlled at the right time. It wasn’t intentional to be a fraud, but somehow along the line, it became a total fraud, any responsible government would have just turned it around, there are different ways of subsidizing. Subsidy is a way of cushioning the effect of hardship on people, food, and transport also can be subsidized. There are some societies where citizens don’t even pay for transport, that is on subsidy, in some societies, the cost of transportation is reduced drastically because the government decided to subsidize it, but we concentrated our own subsidy on petroleum alone, making it unreasonable, there are other ways it can be addressed. The important thing now is for government to cushion the effect of hardship on the masses, such as the provision of good roads by government, subsidising means of transportation of course minimum wage is outdated, that amount of money is not sustainable.”