Over 10 Million Beneficiaries Of Government’s N75k Livelihood Support Don’t Have Phones, Not On Social Media – APC Chairman

Over 10 Million Beneficiaries Of Government’s N75k Livelihood Support Don’t Have Phones

 

 

OpenLife News reports that the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, says over 10 million vulnerable Nigerians who benefited from the Federal Government’s N75,000 conditional cash transfer cannot defend the policy online because they don’t have phones or access to social media.

Yilwatda disclosed this on Saturday while speaking with journalists after a three-day retreat of the APC National Executive Council in Maiduguri, Borno State.

According to him, the beneficiaries are poor and vulnerable Nigerians who were reached through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.

“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,” he said.

The APC chairman said the inability of the beneficiaries to participate in public discourse has allowed critics to dominate the narrative about government policies.

Defending the removal of fuel subsidy, Yilwatda faulted former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubakar, for proposing to return subsidy.

He argued that subsidy removal has freed up resources for infrastructure, salary payments and social interventions.

“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?” Yilwatda queried.

He added that a return to subsidy would threaten key projects of the Tinubu administration, including the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, the gas project to the North, and the student loan scheme.

“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,” he said.

Yilwatda accused Atiku of seeking to reverse the gains of the current administration in pursuit of his presidential ambition, saying Nigerians would not accept it.

On the party’s retreat, he said the NEC reviewed APC’s performance at national, state, local government, ward and polling-unit levels and concluded that the party remains strong and ready for the 2027 general elections.

He said the NEC passed a vote of confidence in President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima and other candidates who emerged from the party’s primaries ahead of 2027.