N800bn subsidy removal palliative avenue to steal money – Sam Amadi

Former Director General of National Electricity Commission (NEC) Dr. Sam Amadi, has described sharing N800 billion to the poor who receive only N5, 000 monthly in poverty reduction as an avenue to embezzle public finance, which does not make any sense.

Amadi’s statement is contained in a post via his Twitter handle on Monday.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had disclosed that the country had secured a World Bank facility worth $800 million.

According to her, the $800 million is the first tranche of palliatives to be disbursed through cash transfers to about 50 million Nigerians, who belong to the most vulnerable category in the society, ahead of the planned subsidy removal.

But Amadi said someone might be planning to have a monetized send-off for herself, allegedly referring to an unnamed government official.

He wrote: “Why do you want to share N800b to the poor who receive N5000 as a poverty reduction strategy? Is that a sensible palliative for multiple impacts of subsidy removal? Is someone planning to have a monetized send-off for herself? There’s no logic here but to embezzle public finance.”