Waziri Adio, founder of Agora Policy, has asked the federal government to provide Nigerians with clear information on the allocation and utilisation of savings from subsidy removal.
Adio spoke on Friday during a civil society organisation (CSO) focus group discussion (FDG) on economic reforms, organised by Agora Policy, a prominent Nigerian think tank.
The policy expert asked the federal government to disclose how gains of petrol subsidy removal contribute to increased federation revenue shared among the three tiers of government.
Stressing the need for greater transparency across all tiers of government, he noted that Nigerians frequently ask how much has been saved from subsidy removal and how the funds are being utilised.
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“The whole money is mixed up now. Maybe it would have been a better arrangement to have segregated it, to have said how much we will have incurred on subsidy,” he said.
“And can we put that separately and even when you are going to distribute it to the three tiers of government, can you say, this is what x got, this is total, and this is what each tier got.”
Adio said citizens should be able to question their local, state, and federal governments — each of which ought to clearly state what they received and how they are spending the funds.
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On his part, Joshua Olufemi, founder of Dataphyte, urged the federal government to ensure that the hardships caused by petrol subsidy removal translate into funds allocated to local governments.
He said this would encourage citizens to pay closer attention to their grassroots governments.
Olufemi also urged the federal government to use existing infrastructure to intentionally communicate policy interventions to Nigerians.
He noted that the federal government already has several extension and information-dissemination structures that can help inform citizens at the grassroots about available interventions and enable them to demand greater accountability.
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“You have the National Orientation Agency (NOA). I know they’re doing a lot, but they already have extension workers or information orientation agents at the local government level that can do some level of information dissemination, policy communication, dissemination or distribution at their level,” he said.
“Same thing for agriculture, health, and even education.
“All of these policies that the government is rolling out, there’s a lot of disinformation and even propaganda that is happening at the sub-national level, blaming the federal government for things that the law has not provided for.”
Olufemi said information is just as important as every other area the government invests in, and it does not require additional spending.
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