What Suffering Are You Bringing To Nigeria? – Yilwatda Tackles Atiku Over Proposed Fuel Subsidy Return

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has criticised the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, over his position on the fuel subsidy.

Naija News reports that Yilwatda, while speaking with journalists on Saturday after a three-day retreat of the APC National Executive Council in Maiduguri, Borno State, argued that a return to fuel subsidy would affect the government’s student loan scheme and other projects.

Yilwatda further accused Atiku of seeking to reverse President Bola Tinubu administration’s gains in pursuit of the presidency, stressing that the APC and Nigerians would not accept such a move.

He stated, “We are constructing roads and paying people that are working on the road site, and construction is going across the country.

“Over 30 states could not pay salaries and pensions. After we removed subsidies, all states can pay salaries and pensions, and no state is left behind.

“Today, if you return it, you are saying states shouldn’t pay salaries again. And what suffering are you bringing to Nigeria?

“The projects we’re doing across the country, like the coastal road and gas project to the north, which have passed Abuja, which are aimed at easing the suffering of Nigerians, will be suspended.”

Yilwatda also disclosed that more than 10 million vulnerable Nigerians who benefited from the ₦75,000 conditional cash transfer programme lack access to mobile phones or social media.

Describing the beneficiaries as poor and vulnerable Nigerians, Yilwatda said they were largely unable to participate in public discussions about government policies because they lacked access to phones, television and social media.

He added, “We have given 75,000 naira to over 10 million Nigerians across the country using the conditional cash transfer under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.

“Mind you, these people who are poor and vulnerable don’t have telephones to make calls; they are not on social media. They don’t have a television. They cannot come and challenge and discuss as we are doing here, but they are out there.”