‘Is it for groundnuts?’ — Atiku’s aide dismisses Tinubu’s N8k relief plan

Phrank Shaibu, an aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed a plan by President Bola Tinubu to pay N8,000 monthly to 12 million poor households.

The president, who sought and got the national assembly’s approval for an $800 million loan to be used for palliative, said the plan would provide relief to citizens following the removal of the petrol subsidy.

On May 29, Tinubu announced in his inaugural speech that the petrol subsidy “is gone”.

In a statement on Thursday, Shaibu described the plan as a “joke”.

“According to statistics, a Nigerian household as of 2019 counted on an average of 5.06 members,” he said.

“So, with Tinubu’s uninspiring plan, each individual in a household will get N1,600 per month or N53 per day. What should they do with it? Use the money to buy a sachet (pure) water or a cup of boiled groundnut on a daily basis?

“Tinubu boasted that he would develop Nigeria’s economy like that of Lagos but this was all a scam. Statistics show that over 70 percent of Lagos revenue comes from income tax paid by private companies which had been in Lagos for decades due to its status as Nigeria’s former capital.

“His only plan is to tax Nigerians to death as he did in Lagos and that is why the people of Lagos rejected him in the last election.”

Shaibu said the All Progressives Congress (APC) has lost favour with a vast majority of Nigeria.

“It is no coincidence that since 2019 when the party invented the charade of trader moni, it also incontrovertibly introduced the menace of vote buying into Nigeria’s politics.”