Chidoka, former Aviation Minister, recommends strategies to mitigate subsidy elimination 2023

Former aviation minister Osita Chidoka has asked President Bola Tinubu to immediately decrease employees’ monthly pension contributions and abolish bank fees to mitigate the public’s effect from fuel subsidy cuts.

On Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, PDP leader and Atiku Abubakar supporter Chidoka stated.

“Think beyond politics. Tinubu abolished gasoline subsidies and petrol prices jumped from 100 to 500 naira in a day. “How can we immediately put more money in workers’ pockets?” he said.

“If I were thinking with him, I would have said immediately: remove the Nigerian bank transfer charges, the N26 and N56, cut it. Banks benefit themselves with that money. IT assistance can be charged monthly at N100. That gives them more money.

Second, our pension program has a lot of money and currently wants businesses to contribute 12% of employees’ salary.

I suppose you can cut the amount individuals contribute for a year or six months to get more money.

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“That way, immediately from the next month salary, another N10,000, or N5,000, enters the pocket of the people who go to work every day. They can afford their transportation since they have to work tomorrow. “We can’t wait until you make a ministerial appointment decision to alleviate suffering,” he remarked.

The ex-minister said the minimum pay should rise from N30,000 to accommodate for current economic realities and inflationary shocks.

He alleged that the Tinubu administration owed gasoline importers $3 billion after stopping subsidies on its first day in office.

Tinubu faces the past since petroleum importers owe $3bn. Nigeria’s four largest gasoline importers have over $3bn in debt and haven’t received enough petroleum to pay it off. “He (Tinubu) has to pay the backlog of those debts,” Chidoka said.

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