Member, House of Representatives, Yagba Federal Constituency, Kogi State, Leke Abejide has said the 36 State Governors, and not Predident Bola Ahmed Tinubu hold the key to reducing economic hardship ravaging the country.
Abejide who is Chairman, House Committee on Customs and Excise, spoke on Tuesday as a guest of Channels Television’s programme _Lunchtime Politics_
Asked if he thought that subsidy removal aftereffects could have been better managed by the federal government, Abejide said President Tinubu could not have done better. Instead, he enjoined State governors to compliment his efforts.
He said, “The first budget he is going to implement was just passed, and implementation has not even started fully because 2023 budget is still running until 31st March, 2024. So, I appreciate what the government is doing and I also pity the suffering masses. What I want to say is just to appeal to our people that this government cannot do any magic now except it is given sometime to correct the wrongs and even though when you correct the wrongs, the low hanging fruits cannot come immediately. There is nothing he can do now than what he is doing, while also assisting the state governments and the state governments have been given a lot of money, the allocation has doubled.
They need to come out to assist the federal government so that their people can feel the impact. People are just looking up to the Federal Government alone; Federal Government alone cannot solve this problem…I agree all the leading presidential candidates said they would remove subsidy and this person came the first day and said subsidy is gone- There was no provision for subsidy in the budget”.
For those who held the views that they couldn’t see where the money saved from subsidy removal has gone, Abejide countered, “Can’t you see that allocation to the state governments has doubled. That is where the money has gone. It is now up to the state governments to compliment the federal government to make sure the money that is being given to them is being spent for the citizens of their states”.