Sam Omatseye, the chairman of The Nation newspaper editorial board and a columnist with the newspaper, in a post on his Facebook page reacted to the plan of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give Palliatives to twelve million families for six months. In his post he shared his article he wrote for the Nation paper which he titled “Robin Hood economy” where he stated that Robin Hood was a soul after the commoner’s heart but President Tinubu is a leader after the commoner’s heart.
Recall that President Tinubu had revealed he will be giving Palliatives to twelve million families for six months to aid them through the effects of petrol subsidy removal. Recently, President Bola Tinubu had gone under critics for asking the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal to dismiss the petition against him for not securing twenty-five percent of the votes In FCT.
The chairman of The Nation newspaper editorial board alleged every leader has flaws but President Tinubu desire to put the needs of commoners in the forefront of his government has set him aside and made him a leader after the commoners heart. And Babatunde Fashola, a former Governor of Lagos State, was the first to decorate Tinubu with this title. However, Omatseye strongly believes that although some people perceive Tinubu’s Palliatives as a mischief, the idea has won the heart’s of the commoners.
He said, “The first person to decorate President Bola Tinubu as Robin Hood is former Lagos State governor, then governor of example, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). He should know. Some see it as a term of endearment. Some have skewed it with mischief. But whatever his flaws, Robin Hood was a soul after the commoner’s heart. His lion’s heartbeat for the poor.”
He added, “That was behind the policy to do away with fuel subsidy and turn the money over to the little guy. One was $800 million, and that amounts to over N500, a billion. There has, however, been a mix-up in the public imagination between the supplementary budget that includes an $800 million loan for cash to the poor and the N500 billion saved from the subsidy. hysteria should be restrained for the facts. The mistake is probably because $800 million equates to a little over N500, a billion. Tinubu came with a number of measures in what he described as a national emergency on food security. It is a wide swath of programmes, some of which, I hear, have not yet been unveiled. One, the $800 million that entails the N8,000 for the very poor households. Two, N19.2 billion for agriculture and that will help farmers immiserated from floods. The allocation of N70 billion whose details we are awaiting and the N35 billion to the judiciary do not belong to this programme. The N10 billion for Abuja may, in parts, address the question of poverty.”
Vincent73 (
)
