By Josfyn Uba
The Senator representing Edo South, Neda Imasuen, has said that the issue of fuel subsidy removal is something that benefited the few rich and not the generality of Nigerians.
He also stated that he had the government to think of a positive and enduring palliative that can help to alleviate the sufferings that would come as a result of the removal.
Senator Imasuen, who spoke exclusively to Sunday Sun recently in Lagos, said that he would love the government to provide buses as it would not have been out of place if the government was able to give each state 100 or 200 buses just to make sure that the masses don’t feel so much the burden of the subsidy removal.
On the issue of palliative, the LP senator said that it is a joke, stressing that was needed is to address the issue head-on by addressing infrastructure and releasing buses to commute the masses from their homes to their places of work. Excerpt:
Let’s talk about President Bola Tinubu’s administration. Do you think he has started well with all these controversies surrounding his policies?
What I say is that he has taken bold steps in doing things that his predecessors refused to do. And one of those things is the removal of fuel subsidy. It is interesting to know that the last administration did not remove it, but they waited till they left and removed it. This government didn’t have any choice because it was not in the 2023 budget. So, where is he going to start from? Is he going to bring it back into the 2024 budget? I don’t think so, because it is a bridge we have crossed. Also, he has done well by removing taxes, but again he needs to do some more far-reaching on infrastructural development. The roads in this country have all collapsed. I don’t think there is any state in this country that has a proper road infrastructure. In the last week, every member of the Senate had things to say on the collapsed state on roads and bridges in their constituency. In my district, Sapele Road, which takes passengers plus goods from Lagos to the East, Delta and to the North, has collapsed. And it is a federal road, but it is now impassable. The Benin/Agbor, Auchi/Okene roads are all dilapidated. You can imagine the untold hardship these cause for the citizens, let alone the economic loss it attracts to the country. So, we should have a holistic approach in trying to solve all these matters because a country that has such an infrastructural deficit won’t go too far.
What do you make of the fuel subsidy removal?
The fuel subsidy is something that has been with us for a very long time. I think that the issue of subsidy is something that benefited the few rich and not the generality of Nigerians. And I also anticipated that removing the fuel subsidy would hurt the poor. What I expected was for the government to think of a positive and enduring palliative that can help to alleviate the sufferings that would come as a result of the fuel subsidy removal. I would love the government to provide buses. It would not have been out of place if the government was able to give each state 100 or 200 buses just to make sure that the masses don’t feel so much the burden of the subsidy removal. That has not been done and what has been done is the N8,000 a month to be paid for six months. If you ask me, I’m not sure what that would do. Today, I don’t think N8,000 is able to take anybody to and from his place of work for two weeks let alone in one month. Lack of infrastructure, like railways in a country of 200 million people is highly needed for the people to move. In every capital of the world, you will see how rail plays a critical role in the movement of citizens from their place of work and at social events. And the more we postpone building these capital-intensive projects, the more it becomes expensive for the country. For we need to start doing that now.
The masses are calling on the political class to also make some sacrifices because the sacrifices have been pushed onto them. What do you have to say about the people in power who are not willing to make sacrifices? Look at the issues of bulletproof cars and palliative for lawmakers?
I am in the parliament and the issue of bulletproofing has never risen. As a matter of fact, I don’t think that there is any Senator, aside from the Senate President as the number three in the country that may deserve that. But I don’t see any Senator that has got a bulletproof car. None of us has been given a car.
The cars would be given to lawmakers, while commoners get N8,000. What’s your reaction?
Like I said earlier, the issue of palliative is a joke, what we need is to address the issue head-on by addressing Infrastructure and releasing buses to commute the masses from their homes to their places of work. But on the political leaders making sacrifices, for the Senate when we came on, we were surprised that most of the offices didn’t have furniture like chairs, tables and computers. In my office, I don’t have any computer, photocopier machine, or visitors’ chairs. It is unbelievable. So, the money that you’re talking about that has been voted, is to provide these necessities for the parliamentarians to work. We have about 360 House of Reps members. So, when you look at that amount of money it looks huge, but when you begin to look at what it is supposed to do, you’ll realize that it’s not as huge as you think. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot make sacrifices because that is what is supposed to be done. It’s something that has to be discussed, I agree with you. But that sacrifice will not go to the root of the problem in solving the issues we are talking about. The issue we are talking about is addressing the infrastructural decay in the country, so if you take away all the salaries of the parliamentarians you would still not solve anything if the issue is not faced head-on.
What is your view on the issue of state police?
I have always believed that we need to have state police because that is what this federation is all about. We are a republic, but we are also federating units, and as federating units we should have some measure of independence and one of those independence should be for states to have their policing system. You don’t expect somebody from Zamfara State to come to Edo State and pretend to know the intricacies of everything in Edo State. We are just pretending and deceiving ourselves. If we really want to attack the issue of insecurity, we need to have state police. It’s very important. Yes, I’m not unmindful of the negatives that might bring also, by some erring governors who would want to use them as their own personal police against whoever they think is their opponents, but that notwithstanding, I still give that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
The Federal Government has increased the school fees in the Unity Schools. What do you make of that?
I attended public schools all my life, so if you put all my parents spent from high school to law school, I’m not sure it’s up to what some parents spend today for their children’s two years of education in private school. That is unacceptable. This is part of the decay that we are talking about. The government seems to have gone to sleep in addressing certain issues. In education, for instance, if you look at the budget it tells you right away from the very beginning that it is as if we are not serious about education, because if we are serious the budgetary allocation to education will begin to tell the story, but the budgetary allocation to education is poor. It needs to improve. That is where we begin and until we see these issues from that perspective we will be dancing around it as if we are not serious about it. By the time the budget comes, we should be able to look at certain indices and sectors that are very critical to us – education, health and infrastructure. We must look at these very critically and that is where we need to put money.