Former House of Representatives from Oyo State, Bosun Oladele, has asked Nigerians to hold the states and Local Government Areas accountable for some of the interventions and palliatives made by the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu.
Oladele expressed concern that Nigerians have always been in the habit of bad-mouthing the Federal government "for lacklustre performance of our States and Local Governments."
"Who did this to us?", he asked.
Speaking in an interview with our correspondent in the wake of the ongoing protest, Oladele, who is the National Secretary of South West Agenda for Asiwaju 2023 (SWAGA'23), said Tinubu's government has carried a lot of reforms especially regarding "more money going to the states and LGs" from increased revenue to the Federal Government.
He said, "The increased revenue is majorly from fuel subsidy, increase in export products as against importation leading to the huge trade surplus currently being experienced in the country and unification of exchange rates.
"While agreeing that some of these policies, as bold as they are, have brought with them hardship in the short run, they are policies that go into preparing a prosperous future for the country."
The former commissioner said some of the reforms have also necessitated the various interventions and welfare programs of the government like wage award of N30,000 for 6 months to civil servants at Federal, States and Local Government Levels, new minimum wage of N70,000, students' loans among others.
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"The question is have we really held our States and Local governments to account for all these provisions made to ensure comfort of our people? The answer is NO!!!!
"It has become a past-time for us as a people to bad-mouth the Federal government for lacklustre performance of our States and Local Governments. Who did this to us?"If every government at the Federal level in Nigeria had worked with the dexterity, sense of purpose, urgency and speed of Asiwaju Tinubu's government since the return of Democracy in Nigeria, our Country should be mid-way to our destination as a leading Country globally by now. Yet the protesters are just waking up to believe and lead others by the nose to equally believe that Nigeria began as a country in 2023 when some people found it unbearable to lose an election."He also condemned Senator Ali Ndume's comment that Tinubu has been caged, describing it as the "most unfortunate statement from a serving senator."Oladele said, "Going by the records, the President has not and does not interfere with the legislature and its legislative activities and has never castigated the legislature in any of his speeches whether in the public or private spaces. It must therefore be condemned in its totality that Sen Ndume will leave his own primary duty to be talking down on the President in such a manner."
