By: Odieh Ramon, Yenagoa.
A former Labour Party (LP) Governorship Candidate in Bayelsa State, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, has appealed to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to bypass the governors and send funds arising from the removal of fuel subsidies to development agencies across the country.
Eradiri said routing the funds through development agencies would help the gains of subsidy removal to get faster to the people and facilitate the actualisation of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President.
Eradiri, who spoke at the sideline of the Alternative Conflict Resolution programme organiser by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in Port Harcourt, said the current practice of sending the subsidy funds to the governors had not achieved the desired impact.
He argued that the development agencies were set up by the President to carry out some of the functions of the governors in the region and deserved to utilize the subsidy funds.
Eradiri, a Fellow of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) suggested that if all the subsidy funds could not be sent to the development agencies, it should be split into two with half disbursed to states and local government areas why the remaining half should be sent to the agencies.
Eradiri said: “I call on President Tinubu as part of actualizing the Renewed Hope Agenda to as a matter of urgency 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 these 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 whether 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.
“If the President cannot redirect all the money, he can divide the money into two. He can send 50 per cent to the governors and local government chairmen and the rest to the development agencies.
“These agencies were set up to carry out some parts of the duties of the governors. If the subsidy windfall is redirected to the agencies they will use them 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 less complaints from the people”.
