From Our Correspondent
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has challenged critics of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to provide facts to disprove his initiatives for managing the impact of fuel subsidy removal on the citizenry.
TMSG gave the challenge in a statement e-mailed to TheNewsZenith on Wednesday in Lagos.
In the statement, the group’s Chairman, Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary, Dapo Okubanjo, expressed dismay at the comments of the opposition on the President’s broadcast.
The duo noted that it was ironic that those insisting on a Presidential address to appease protesters were the same dismissing the speech as empty.
“The Presidential address because it does not match their scripts.
“Many of them did not bother to listen to what the President had to say. They were out for what they wanted to hear.
“This is why their reactions are decibels of rancorous, discordant tunes, dogmatic and pedantic,” TheNewsZenith quotes the group as stating.
According to TMSG, it is strange to see people, supposedly concerned about hardship, still opting to stage protests.
“They are adamant to appeals for calm; neither does government’s initiatives contained in the address, interest them.
“For us, the speech was a revealing one in which President Bola Tinubu opened up on how revenue accruing to the federation account has doubled in the last six months.
“The President enumerate how his administration is utilising funds for the people’s benefit.
“We believe that if those people had listened with an open mind, they would have picked where the President said that aggregate revenue has doubled to N9.1 trillion in the first part of this year.
“And its usefulness to all tiers of governments to improve citizens’ living standards.
“But because they have a jaundiced mindset on regime change and anarchy, they opted not to hear anything.
“For them, anything short of the President acceding to their 15-point demand, or the key one on restoring fuel subsidy, was unacceptable.”
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For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its perennial Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, the group said it was not surprising that they refused to toe the path of a responsible and reasonable opposition.
“A recent example closer to Nigeria from Kenya shows how an opposition is expected to behave when faced with a protest capable of compounding a country’s politico-economic issues,” TMSG stated.
The group also highlighted some of the things the President said and challenged critics to prove him wrong.
“For the first time in Nigeria, we now have a student loan scheme. The scheme has disbursed about N45 billion to universities of the first set of successful applicants.
“There is also a first-of-its-kind N200 billion consumer credit scheme, for which 1.6 million Nigerians have showing interest.
“The Renewed Hope Housing scheme is gradually taking shape. Its first phase is under construction in 12 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
“The federal government plans to have estates in all the states of the federation.”
On the concerned about skyrocketing food inflation, the group said the Nigerian Customs has started to implement the President’s directive on a 150-day, duty-free importation of essential food items
These items include rice, wheat, maize and cowpea.
“This is aside from tonnes of food items handed to state governments for vulnerable people in their respective domains.
“It is common knowledge that all tiers of government have received improved allocations from the Federation Account.
“This is an average disbursement of N1.2 trillion a month compared to the N655 billion in May 2023.
“The federal government has also released N570 billion to states, including opposition parties controlled states, for livelihood support.
TMSG, therefore, urged Nigerians to consider taking subnationals to task on what they have been doing with their improved allocations.
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