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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Abia State, Dr Kelechi Anosike, has said President Bola Tinubu deserves a second term, arguing that the removal of fuel subsidy has increased resources available to states and enabled greater infrastructure development across the country.
Anosike, in a statement issued by his media unit, said the increased allocations to states following the subsidy removal had strengthened their finances and reduced the need for states to borrow to meet recurrent obligations.
He, however, said the benefits of the policy should extend beyond government and infrastructure projects to ordinary Nigerians who have borne the consequences of higher transport and living costs.
“If Nigerians are asked to bear the pain of subsidy removal, Nigerians must also receive the welfare dividend of subsidy removal. That should become a new social contract,” he said.
Anosike said the increased resources available to the states should be channelled into programmes that reduce the cost of living and support vulnerable citizens.
He proposed a six-point welfare programme covering food subsidy, transport subsidy, workers’ welfare, healthcare, education and youth enterprise support.
“Modern welfare should mean using public resources to reduce the cost of living, protect vulnerable citizens, increase productive capacity and give people the means to prosper,” he said.
The PDP candidate said the removal of subsidy had imposed significant costs on households, citing increases in transportation expenses as an example.
“Where transport was N500 before subsidy removal, it is now N3,000, N4,000. People have to bear a lot on daily basis. States should provide productive investments, palliatives and social protection mechanisms,” he said.
He also urged state governments to balance infrastructure development with direct welfare interventions, arguing that citizens should benefit from the increased public resources.
Anosike cited recent comments by Tinubu criticising what he described as the waste of state resources on infrastructure projects at the expense of citizens’ welfare.
“People must be alive to use infrastructure. The President said last three weeks that he saw wasted state resources building flyovers, that they should take care of their people,” he said.
According to him, infrastructure development and welfare should complement each other.
“A good government should build roads and feed people, build hospitals and provide healthcare, build schools and support indigent students,” he said.
Anosike said the approach would form part of his programme if elected governor of Abia State in 2027.
“That is what we are proposing to do in Abia State. We will build roads, we will feed Abians. We will build lives. The people first, then Abia always. The greatest infrastructure is the people,” he said.
