By Sandra Umeh
A Lagos-based Rights Activist, Mr Spurgeon Ataene, on Thursday urged President Bola Tinubu to set up a community-based taskforce with a mandate to ensure implementation of government’s commendable agenda.
Ataene made the appeal on Thursday in reaction to the recent National Presidential Broadcast indicating the policy direction of his administration.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Tinubu had in the broadcast listed some palliatives by government to reduce the burden of current economic challenges in Nigeria.
The president had, among others, pledged to ensure availability of affordable staple foods, adding that it had ordered the release of 200,000 metric tonnes of grains from strategic reserves to households across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He also assured on the provision of 225,000 metric tonnes of fertiliser, seedlings and other inputs to farmers who are committed to its food security agendum.
Besides, the Federal Government had also pledged to introduce a new national minimum wage for workers, thus ensuring an upward review of workers’ salary.
In his reaction, Ataene, who commended the various laudable initiatives of government, urged that right mechanisms be instituted for proper implementation of those initiatives.
“To ensure that all these agenda of government does not end up in the hands of few greedy individuals, it is important to put in place a community-based engagement.
“For instance, on the provision of agricultural produce, it should be extended to the ward level; every ward should have a monitoring committee because we find the masses in the villages and the suburbs, which are the grassroots.
“So, these monitoring groups must ensure that these palliatives reach the masses at the very grassroots, through the ward level, and then to the local government and state levels,” Ataene said.
He said that it was also important for government to ensure the construction of more oil refineries in addition to existing ones, which must be made to work optimally.
“If this is done, it is capable of curing all other irregularities in the country as well as soothing pains of citizens across board.
“As producers of crude oil, we should have the privilege of enjoying the luxury of our products,” he said.
Ataene also urged that government should be made up of both the political class and technocrats.
“So, if for instance, we talk about the agricultural sector, then someone versed in Agriculture should be made to head that sector, to drive competence.
“We must not put square pegs in round holes,” he said. (NAN)
